


Snowfall

by Domoz



Category: Critical Hit (Podcast)
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-22 04:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8272195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Domoz/pseuds/Domoz
Summary: The Raven Queen has been gone for years, and the undead that she usually kept under control are starting to become a problem. Ket and Sekhar go to investigate the problem separately and wind up finding each other.





	1. Chapter 1

There was only one port on the Northern Continent that never froze over. It was on the tip of the southernmost peninsula and saw plenty of trade during every season. It was surrounded by spruce trees, and the most popular drink at the most popular bar was gin.

Ket H’zard was not known for liking gin, but he was known for hanging around in bars and gambling with people who would get a little aggressive if he started to win too much.

Sekhar Obleea _was_ known for liking gin, along with pretty much every other form of alcohol known to man. He was also known for getting into bar fights that didn’t necessarily involve him.  


He didn’t know that Ket was in the bar when he hit a man in the head with a chair. He was a little too drunk to think much of someone else cursing the name “H’zard.”

He was actually surprised when, after most of those involved were lying on the floor, clutching various aching parts of their bodies he spotted one Ket, leaning back on a table and looking only slightly ruffled and bruised.  


Ket spotted him, too, and raised an eyebrow. He’s equally surprised, though considerably less drunk.

“Obleea? What are you doing this far north?”  


It took Sekhar a moment to clear his head enough to answer.

“I… You’ve heard of the undead issue that’s been plaguing Diamond-throne, yes? Rumor would have it that the thing that’s causing all the zombies to rise up from their graves originates from up here. Why are _you_ here?”

 

Ket took a moment to sidestep a reaching hand from one of the bodies on the floor.

“Would you believe we’re here for the same reason?”

“You know, I think I might.”

 

A few hours and a few rounds of cards later, they agreed to travel together. They were there for the same reason, after all -- may as well work together on whatever was to come.

 

* * *

 

 

The mount of choice in the region were big woolly horses, and the next morning the both of them bought one for the journey.

 _They’re not fast,_ the salesman had explained to them, _but they’ve got a lot of stamina, and can get you where you need to go, even in the snow_.  


Which was all well and good, but the snow this far south was usually confined to the shadows under trees, and the slow speed meant the ride took place in awkward silence.

 

Sekhar tried to keep vigilant of the road ahead and the forest to the sides, but after an hour or two he found that there wasn’t much that was very exciting to look at. Eventually he started casting sidelong glances at Ket, too.  


Sekhar wasn’t really sure how to approach traveling alone with Ket just yet. For all the time they had traveled together before, he had never really managed to get a good read on him. Every long conversation they had had that he could remember had been over a game of some kind, and he wasn’t exactly liable to open up _then_. He could respect that Ket was a private person, but now that left him struggling to start a conversation.

Ket, for his part, was riding along looking at the woods, mind apparently somewhere else - though Sekhar didn’t miss how every now and again, he would cast a glance back his way. He couldn’t tell if Ket was expecting something or if he was being sized up, and the man himself did nothing to let him know either way.  


If neither of them were great conversationalists, then might as well stick with the safer topics to start with.  


Three hours into their ride and Sekhar cleared his throat.

“So… H’zard.”

 

Ket looked up at him with an expression that implied that he was bored out of his skull.

“Mmhm?”  


“How much do you know about what’s going on, exactly? All I know is that the undead seem to be originating from up here.”  


Ket shrugged.

“Not a lot. I’ve got some theories, but nothing I can really prove.”  


There was a long moment of silence as their horses trudged down the road. Sekhar had to stop himself from sighing in annoyance. He really hoped this wasn’t how the whole journey was going to be.

“Like what?”  


“What?”  


“What kind of theories?”  


Ket actually look surprised for a moment, and his horse slowed seemingly in response. He had to take a moment to get it walking again.  


“Well… The Raven Queen is still missing. Kind of. But the way I see it, if she was still around in the way she used to be, this wouldn’t be happening.”  


Sekhar tilted his head. “Well, what happened to the Raven Queen?”  


Ket started to explain, reluctantly at first, but with more assurance as he went on about how -- years ago, now -- she had brought him into a game in the Kobold Alley, and she had _lost_. And she had turned into something else right in front of him -- but no one had ever heard from the Raven Queen since.  


“Now, I guess she’s the _Obsidian Huntress,_ which is something else,” Ket continued, “but whatever that something else is, it doesn't seem to be too concerned with the undead.”  


“I suppose that explains the undead. But why here, of all places?”  


“Well, supposedly, there’s some big temple that used to be dedicated to the Raven Queen out-” Ket gestured vaguely towards the north, “-there. Somewhere. The biggest one on the natural plane, or so I was told. I figured that’s probably related, too.”  


Sekhar felt a smirk climbing onto his face.

“You don’t sound sure.”  


“Well it’s not like I’ve ever _been_. Like I said, it’s only a theory.”  


“It’s a theory strong enough to decide which direction we’re going. I certainly think it’s better than ‘follow the undead,’ which is all I was doing until now.”

Ket shrugged.

“Different pools of knowledge. That and the extra body are pretty much why I suggested we go together.”  


Sekhar raised an eyebrow in an effort to hide his smile.

“So I’m an extra body?”  


Ket gave him a deadpan stare.

“Well I’ve only got the one. So, yes?”  


“Are you sure?” Sekhar teased, “Because I figured with all those extra souls, you might have something laying around-”  


They went on like that for a while, and Sekhar quickly found that when Ket was supplied with something, he was more than willing to talk. In fact, he turned out to be fairly opinionated on a lot of things once he got going. It was surprising, to say the least -- somehow Sekhar had managed to completely miss this facet of his personality. Maybe he just hadn’t talked to him enough before, or maybe Ket really did act different when he didn’t have a group to contend with. Either way, he figured, this trip was going to be more exciting than he thought.

 

* * *

  
Two nights later they were camping out, eating trail rations by a small bonfire. Ket was quietly sitting on one of the nearby stones, looking up at the sky. Sekhar watched him for a long several moments, until he decided to move over and join him. Perhaps he was curious, or bored, or the clearness of the stars above made him feel lonely. Sekhar usually tried not to dwell on feelings like those himself.  


It took Ket a few moments to respond to Sekhar’s presence -- so as they had been over the past couple of days, Sekhar tried prodding.  


“What are you thinking about, H’zard?”

Ket blinked.

“Mostly about how much I hate the cold. I guess it’s only gonna get worse from here on out, though.”  


Sekhar nodded, and a silence fell between them. Over the few days they had spent together, this had started to happen, too. Now that he had gotten to know Ket a little more personally, Sekhar had started to think of the silences as a little more comfortable.  


It was quiet for a time, at least. When Sekhar had thought up a question, he could only keep it to himself for so long. Ket shifted his position, sitting with his head balanced in one hand, and that arm on a knee -- and Sekhar broke down.  


“Ket.”  


Apparently Sekhar had startled him, because he watched as Ket froze up in an attempt to hide the fact that he jumped.  


“What?”  


“Do you miss your family?”  


Ket slowly turned to look at him. His face was blank but Sekhar could feel himself being sized up. Eventually, Ket looked away to some distant spot in the trees and said, “Yeah. I guess I do. Why do you ask?”  


Sekhar leaned back and looked up at the stars. The moon was just a tiny sliver, making it easy to spot all the constellations that were usually so faint.  


“You just don’t seem to talk about them much, is all. Have you seen them since the whole business when we were last in Coldport together?”

 

Ket nodded, still looking off into the darkness.

“I found where they’re living in the Seven Clans, yeah. Emmil has started working the the Bronze Turtles and Charlotte has started looking into opening a new bar. They’re doing okay.”

 

That was probably the most information Ket had ever shared about anything personal to him without being directly asked. Sekhar decided to keep that particular fact to himself.  


“What about your grandmother?”  


Ket leaned back, giving Sekhar a quizzical look.  


“I haven't seen _her,_ but she only really shows up when she feels like it. But if you want something from her, all we really need is a sending scroll.”  


Sekhar chuckled at the assumption.

“No, I’m fine. I was just wondering. Is there anyone else you haven't talked about? Your parents?”

 

Ket’s expression shifted from confusion to something more like disbelief. It actually took him a moment to find the words to respond.  


“My parents… Died a long time ago. So no, I haven't seen them. I would probably be pretty horrified if I did.”  


Now it was Sekhar’s turn to be speechless. He gaped for a moment before he managed to stammer out, “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

 

Ket shrugged.

“You’re fine. It was a long time ago, and I’ve never really talked about it.”  


“Well… Would you? I don’t mean to pry into anything painful, but I’d be interested to hear the story.”

 

Ket drew his eyebrows together in a mixture of concern and annoyance.

“What’s got you so nosy all of a sudden?”

 

“I just figured if we’re going to be traveling together, we may as well get to know each other.”  


“We’ve already traveled together for a year, at least.” Ket pointed out, “You should know what to expect from me by now.”  


That was the thing -- Sekhar really _didn’t_ know. In battle, sure, but this whole conversation had just proven to him he knew next to nothing about Ket outside of that.  


“Maybe I should,” Sekhar conceded, “but maybe I’ve also always been nosy, and now that we’re not desperately trying to stop the Coil, I’m finally getting the chance to ask.”  


Ket rolled his eyes. “I can tell you if you really want to hear it that badly. But there’s not much to tell.”  


Sekhar leaned forward with an expectant expression

Ket sighed.

“I guess I’ll start at the beginning, then.”

 

His grandmother was an Eladrin, who on a trip to the natural world fell in love with a human man. She stayed; they got married and they had a daughter. That daughter grew up, fell in love, and had kids of her own. Her husband was in the city guard in what may have been the worst time to be a city guard in all of Coldport’s history.  


The city was constantly under attack by the different warlords of the Freelands, and eventually he died. Ket’s mother died shortly afterwards, and that was that.  


“ _Died of what?”_ asked Sekhar.

“ _I don’t know,”_ Replied Ket, “she just sort of got sick one day.”  


Sekhar listened to it all, nodding along. It wasn’t the story he had expected, but he really didn’t know _what_ he had expected.

“So you were raised by your grandmother, then? Lady Peacetree?”

 

Ket shook his head. “Not until way after the fact. She’s a busy lady. I don’t think she had any idea about what had happened for a long time.”  


“That sounds… Difficult.”  


Ket shrugged.

“I guess so.”

He paused for a moment, then leaned back to look over Sekhar with a more critical eye.

“Well, what about you? You never really talk about your family either, and I’m nosy, too.”  


Sekhar chuckled and ran a hand through his hair.

“Well, they have a lot of secrets -- political and otherwise. To be quite honest with you, I’m not exactly the best judge on what’s safe to say or what isn’t. So I just… Don’t. There’s a reason I didn’t hang around and get involved in politics.”  


Ket made no attempt to hide his disappointed expression.

“I guess that’s fair,” He conceded. “Do you miss them, though?”  


Sekhar had to take a moment to consider the question.

“I miss my mother, I suppose.”  


“...No one else?”  


“I haven't been on good terms with my brothers in a quite a while, so… No.”

 

“Oh,” said Ket, “well, I guess that answers that.”  


Sekhar hummed a low note.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up after all. It seems like a bad time all around.”  


Ket sounded almost mildly offended when he said, “It’s not  _all_ bad.”

Sekhar couldn’t help but smile at that.  


“I take it you love your younger siblings quite a bit.”

 

Ket looked taken aback by how boldly Sekhar was willing to say that.

“I… Yeah. I do.”  


They stayed up making small chat late into the night -- until the fire started burning low and Ket said, “I haven't seen any zombies around yet, but I’ll keep watch for a couple of hours.”  


Sekhar nodded and retreated to his bedroll. He had a lot to think about as he layed there. Randus's stories had only given him a very general impression of Ket, and in all the time they had known each other, he had never done anything to challenge that.  


But then again, he had never asked.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Without a solid idea of where they were going, Ket and Sekhar slowy made their way north, their horses plodding down winding dirt roads and through sleepy villages.

They spent plenty of time in comfortable silence, but every now and then one or the other of them would make a quip about some rock or tree or what the village grew when it wasn’t cold and the fields weren’t fallow.

Sekhar vehemently argued that it seemed like the kind of place that would grow radishes; Ket was secure in the idea that they grew peas.

 

“I don’t even like peas,” said Ket, “but this definitely seems like the kind of place that grows them.”

“Is that meant to be an insult to the people who live here? I didn’t think you were the type, H’zard.”

Ket rolled his eyes.

“You’d know if I was trying to insult them. I just know my beans.”

That threw Sekhar off guard.

“You… Why do you know a lot about beans?”

 

Ket shrugged.

“I worked a lot of odd jobs as a kid. Several of which were on farms.”

“Where you learned about peas.”

“Where I decided that peas are the worst vegetable, yes.”

That raised a lot of questions. For some reason the first one that came out of Sekhar’s mouth was, “So does that mean there’s a best vegetable?”

Ket considered this for a moment.

“Yams. Definitely yams.”

Sekhar couldn’t hold back his chuckle, although he tried when Ket gave him an annoyed glance.

“Of all things, why yams?”

Ket shrugged.

“I dunno. Good memories, I guess.”

Ket looked away at some copse of trees, seemingly embarrassed. He obviously wasn’t going to continue on with that nugget of information on his own, so Sekhar prodded him as gently as he could.

“...Memories like…?”

“Like… I dunno. A lot of places sold candied yams when it started to get cold out. It was a treat when we had extra money.”

 

Again showing his lack of impulse, Sekhar said, “Oh, that sounds quite cute, actually.”

Not, “I’ve never had a candied yam, what do they taste like?” Not, “Do you think you’d like peas if they were candied?”

He had gone with ‘cute’ and immediately winced at himself for it. Ket gave him a quizzical stare.

“If you say so. Do you have an attachment to a vegetable of your own, or is this a new interest you’re just now discovering?”

 

“I suppose if I had to pick a favorite, I’d pick cabbage. I was just surprised you felt so strongly about it, is all.”

“Cabbage,” said Ket flatly. He shrugged again, trying to brush the whole thing off. “Well, I know what I like. And I know peas, and I’m pretty sure that’s what they were growing back there.”

“If you say so.”

 

* * *

 

They had their first encounter with the undead on the sixth day of travel. Ket actually picked up on them first - he stopped his horse and held out a hand for Sekhar to do the same.

“I smell something rotten,” he said. After a moment, the stench hit Sekhar, too. It was definitely a corpse smell, and he had to stop himself from gagging.

He looked around to spot marks in the snow - someone, or something, had been dragged, leaving a trail of fresh blood and something else that was probably even more foul.

His hand went to his weapon and he looked over to see Ket holding his staff in a defensive position.

“I’d bet on zombies,” he said. “We should keep moving, but be ready.”

The next hour was ridden in tense silence. Sekhar strained his ears for any shuffling in the underbrush, and Ket kept a vigilant eye on the forest. Every now and again, Ket would silently gesture at some sign of disturbance in the underbrush. Somehow the smell had only gotten worse as they moved forward.

Sekhar only heard them a moment before they lurched out into the middle of the road. A group of five… _Corpses_ now stood between them and the path forward. Four of them were old - dried and withered, missing noses and covered in frostbite, but the fifth was decidedly newer, still bloated with rot and oozing something that might be called blood.

Sekhar was off his horse with his swords out in moments, but Ket’s animal panicked and he struggled to calm it down as the undead moved forward

“Save the fresh one for last,” he called, “it won’t be pretty when it goes down.”

Sekhar simply nodded in affirmation as he charged into the group. It really did smell vile; the stench made his eyes water, which made it fairly difficult to judge where he was being attacked from. Before he realized it, there were hands grabbing at him from every direction and he had to shove a  sword into a zombie’s _teeth_ just to keep from getting bitten.

Then there was another set of hands on his legs, threatening to jerk his feet out from under him, and the one he had stuck his sword through was ignoring it, walking towards him _through_ the blade to grab at his face. He felt a dull pain in his other arm as a third zombie bit down.

Then there was a bright flash of green and suddenly Ket was behind him, tossing some spell that sent the one on his feet rolling across the ground.

“Back _up_ ,” Ket called to him. “They’re _stupid,_ you can separate them. Fight them one at a time.”

 

So Sekhar obliged, ripping his swords out of either zombie and half-stumbling backwards to put some distance between himself and the undead. True to Ket’s word, they really _were_ stupid, and given that their legs were in various states of disrepair, some of them were faster than the others.

One lurched forward ahead of the pack, and alone it was almost too simple for Sekhar to bring up his sword and remove it’s head from it’s body.

Not that either stopped moving. In short order, he had to take off the arms and legs as well, to keep the zombie from grabbing him again. From the corner of his eye he saw Ket mumbling and making gestures, and suddenly in front of him the group of undead was standing in a circle of fire. Sekhar rushed forward, sword catching aflame to follow suit.

If he targeted them one by one, they really didn’t put up that much of a fight, especially not with Ket providing ranged support. The fresh one did, as Ket predicted, make something of an explosion as it hit the ground, coupled with a smell that they both had to retreat several yards from.

Sekhar took a moment to clean the worst of the gore from his swords. Next to him, Ket was looking around the battlefield.

“Well, I think my horse got spooked.” He turned to look at Sekhar. “You got hurt.”

 

His tone of voice was very matter-of-fact, but something about the look in his eyes (was it.. concern?) made Sekhar’s heart feel like it was being strangled by a tiny, angry goblin. He opened his mouth and then closed it again.

He decided to file away that feeling for later.

 

“It’s fine, I can heal it myself,” he finally settled on saying. Then he looked down at the wound and hesitated. “Is there… Some sort of special treatment I should use? I can’t say I’ve ever been bitten by a zombie.”

Ket put a hand to his mouth, presumably to hide a chuckle.

“If you’re worried about turning into one, don’t be. You have to be dead before you can be undead. Although… You _are_ already halfway there, aren’t you?”

 

Sekhar shot a scowl at him and Ket let his hand fall away to reveal a lopsided grin. And the strange butterflies _that_ put in his heart was being filed away for later, too. Honestly, he felt a little ridiculous.

 

“You’ll be okay,” said Ket. “It may be a little more likely to get infected, but keep it clean and it’ll be fine.”

Sekhar nodded and started calling up the usual spirits for stitching up his wounds. The muscle and skin knit together, leaving behind only the faintest trace of scarring. He looked behind him to where Ket had his horse by the reigns.

“We’re going to have to share, until we get to the next town at least.” Ket shrugged. “Sorry. I’m not great with animals.”

Sekhar heaved himself onto the horse and reached down to offer a hand to Ket. “I’ve noticed.”

Ket rode sidesaddle behind Sekhar, with one arm around his waist and the other holding his staff at the ready in case of more zombies.

 

Sekhar desperately searched for a distraction to fill the silence between them.

“So… I’ve always been meaning to ask. You’ve always seemed proficient in battlefield tactics. Where did you learn?”

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting to hear. His brothers had tutors for that sort of thing, but he felt Ket shift behind him as he considered his answer.

“I guess I mostly taught myself,” he said. “Experience, mostly. A few books.”

 

“Hm.” Sekhar considered that for a moment. “Well, you’re good. Certainly better than most of the generals I’ve dealt with in actual wartime.”

Ket snorted.

“If you’re thinking about asking me to serve in the Diamond-throne army, I’m going to stop you right there.”

Sekhar chucked. “Fair enough. I was more planning on asking you _why_ you decided to learn something like that. It’s not really useful to most people.”

Ket hummed under his breath.

“Well, I’m not most people. I got into fights a lot, especially after the lunar incident. And I couldn’t be everywhere at once. I figured stuff like that was that best way to keep as many people from getting hurt as possible.”

“How noble of you.”

Ket didn’t respond to that. Sekhar suddenly felt self-conscious about how sarcastic he had sounded. It _was_ a noble intention; the fact that Ket had been the one trying to do it didn’t make it any less so.

 

As they rode on, Sekhar realized that it was a running theme. Ket could do anything, really, and someone would assume he had an ulterior motive - himself included. Hell, maybe Ket _did_ have an ulterior motive, but he hadn’t done anything in all the time Sekhar had known him to prove it.

He could practically hear Ket saying, _it’s not as though ulterior means bad,_ and quietly chuckled to himself. Ket shifted his weight behind him, but didn’t say anything.

It was getting dark by the time that they found the walls of the next town, and the sight wasn’t pretty. Corpses were piled into smoking piles along the side of the road, and the gates were tightly closed. Sekhar watched as the guards on the walls readied arrows at their approach.

When they reached the walls, Ket slid off the horse.

“We seek asylum for the night,” he called up to the watchmen, “if there is any to be had.”

One leaned over the wall to look at them.

“Well, you can talk, which is a good start,” she said, with a gesture for the others to lower their bows, “but I’m afraid that the city is quite full with refugees. We don’t have any charity to spare.”

Now Sekhar looked up at them.

“We’re not looking for charity. We just want a room for the night and then we’ll be on our way.”

“Which way?”

Sekhar and Ket exchanged a look.

“North, probably.”

“Probably?” The guard captain gestured at a group of men who sauntered off. “I’m letting you in to talk with you. Someone will take your horse to the stables. Keep your weapons in their sheathes.”

 

The gate was only opened barely enough for them to pass through before it was quickly shut and bolted behind them. One guardsman took the horse by the reins and the others stood by the sides, ready to draw their weapons on a moment’s notice. The guard captain was there waiting for them with a curious expression.

“You do realize,” she said, not a moment after they were through the door, “that the north is where the undead problem _originates_ from, yes?”

Ket nodded, and Sekhar said, “That would be our reason for heading that direction, yes.”

She looked them up and down with a more critical eye. “You foreigners?”

“Sort of,” said Ket carefully. “We haven’t been around for a while.”

Sekhar raised an eyebrow but kept his mouth shut.

The guard captain scratched her chin with her thumb.

“What do you want with all those zombies, anyways? People come through here every day trying to get _away_.”

“Well, _hopefully_ we’re going to put a stop to it,” said Ket.

 

“...I see. Any idea how you’re going to do that?”

“Eh.” Ket shrugged. “Not yet. We’re workshopping it.”

The guard captain gave an exaggerated eye roll.

“I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you into the city for tonight, but you two promise to meet me here in the morning, and we’ll talk about your plan in a little more detail.”

“I think that’s more than agreeable.”

 

Sekhar nodded, and she gestured at the street behind her.

“There’s one inn in town. Can’t miss it. And don’t miss our meeting.”

Ket nodded and grabbed Sekhar’s elbow in an attempt to hustle him along.

“Thank you for your hospitality.”

And then they were moving into the town proper, walking past streets filled with people who were huddling together for warmth.

Sekhar leaned over to talk into Ket’s ear in a low tone.

“What was that about, exactly?”

“What part?”

“Mostly the part where you told them we were from around here. Of all the things to lie about, why that?”

Ket slowed to a stop in front of the door to the inn.

“In my experience, in situations like these, the more you can relate to people, the more they’re willing to trust you.” Ket opened the door and waved his hand at the inn. “After you.”

That raised some questions. When had Ket been in a situation like _this,_ for starters. Sekhar simply nodded and stepped inside. Ket’s reasoning was sound, at least, and he had plenty more time to hound him on questions like that.

 

The man tending the desk looked very stressed, especially when he noticed the two of them come in. He looked up at them, and then his eyes immediately trailed down to stick on the swords at Sekhar’s sides.

“W-we only have one room left,” he started. “Sorry for the inconvenience.”

“That’s fine,” said Sekhar, as soothingly as he could. “How much is it?”

“A- gold for the week.” The man visibly cringed as Sekhar reached into his bag to retrieve the coin. “It’s the room at the end of the stairs. The last one.” The innkeeper quickly switched the coin with the room key. “T-thank you.”

The fact that they had to share a room hadn’t seemed like a problem when Sekhar had payed for the room, but the moment he opened the door they realized the issue. It was really only big enough for the bed and sparse furniture that had been shoved inside.

Ket looked around with an expression that bordered on worry.

“I was going to offer to sleep on the floor if there was only one bed,” he said, “but there’s not enough room for _me_ , much less a bedroll.”

Sekhar gave him a sidelong glance.

“We’re adults, I think we can handle sharing a bed for one night.”

“I know,” said Ket with a shrug, trying to brush off how tense he was. “I just didn’t think we’d _have_ to.”

 

They were too tired from the travel, and from the fight earlier in the day to make much of an effort in cleaning up. Sekhar settled down in the spot closest to the wall and closed his eyes. Ket joined him a few minutes later.

Sekhar could feel how tense Ket was without even looking at him. Was it something about _him_ that was making him so uncomfortable? Or something about the idea of sleeping in the same bed of someone in general? Maybe it had nothing to do with this situation at all. Sekhar kept his breathing even but, try as he might, he couldn’t get to sleep. There was too much to consider, so much so that he could hear Ket’s breathing even out behind him before he so much as drifted off.

Sekhar sighed and turned over from his spot facing the wall. This was, he considered, possibly a mistake, because the movement jostled the mattress in such a way that Ket was pulled closer to the middle, head resting only a few inches from Sekhar’s chest.

He looked… Relaxed. Sekhar felt that strange fluttering in his chest and swallowed hard. Right. That feeling. The one he had pushed down never to see the light of day only hours before was already back with a vengeance.

He liked Ket. That was not a problem. Ket had proven himself to be more than capable as a fighter, and, perhaps, as a friend.

The problem was that when he looked at Ket, especially like this, he had to quell the urge to reach out and run a thumb up his jawline. More than that, he wanted Ket to look up at him and _smile_ at his touch and-

Well, this was a miserable situation wasn’t it? He hadn’t felt this way about someone in _years,_ and now he was stuck with him in the world’s tiniest room with no idea what to do about it.

Ket mumbled something in his sleep and shifted even _closer_ to Sekhar. This whole situation was really not helped by the fact that Ket was attractive, on top of everything else.

Sekhar sighed and turned back over so he was facing the wall again. He had spent nearly a week getting to know Ket, and somehow the topic of romance had never come up. Perhaps that was on purpose, on Ket’s part. Sekhar didn’t have the faintest idea if he even stood a chance.

Behind him, Ket made another movment in his sleep. Sekhar felt Ket’s head find a space to rest between his shoulder blades.

Ah. So he was a cuddler. Maybe that had been why he had been so nervous earlier. Sekhar pressed his face into the wall in an effort to not scream.

It was going to be a long night.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Sekhar fell into a restless sleep about an hour before the sun rose. He felt at least a little lucky that Ket was a heavy sleeper, which gave him a few precious extra minutes of shut-eye before he was roused by movement behind him.  


When he turned over to look, Ket was very intently focused on tying his bootlaces. Ket paused as he felt Sekhar move but didn’t look up.  


“We should get going,” he said. “The guard captain has probably been up for a while waiting for us.”  


Sekhar grunted and started to get up. Ket took the moment to stand up and wait for at him for the door, watching him with an expression that was impossible to read.

Sekhar stole a glance at him as he pulled on his own boots. Something was wrong, or at least _off_. Had _he_ done something in the night? Or had Ket realized the position they had woken up in and gotten embarrassed?

 

He brushed his hair back with a hand and finished getting ready.

Well, he hadn’t had a problem with it, per se. If Ket had some issue, he would have to bring it up himself.  


There was a light dusting of snow on the ground as they stepped outside. Ket shook his head as they crunched through the snow.

“We’re not even that far north yet. I’m not looking forward to more snow.”

“Winter has only just started,” Sekhar added. “It’s probably only going to get worse.”  


Ket gave an overdramatic sigh as they walked through the archway where the guard captain had asked them to meet. She stood waiting with the reigns of two horses in her hand.  


“You’re late!” She called out to them, though she sounded in good spirits. She looked both of them up and down and raised an eyebrow at Sekhar as he stifled a yawn.  


“I take it you didn’t sleep well?”

There was something about the smirk on her face that suggested she thought she knew something. Sekhar rubbed one of his eyes.

“I slept just fine, thank you very much.”  


Ket gestured at the new horse.

“Is that for us? That’s awfully generous for a town that can’t afford charity.”  


She shrugged.

“If it gets you stopping this trouble faster, then that’s fine with me. And besides, as far as I’m concerned, it’s a better fate than getting eaten, which is what’s going to happen if they stay here.”  


Sekhar said, “Thank you” at the same time Ket said, “What’s the catch?”  


She sighed and her breath was a puff of white in the air.

“The catch is that you need to actually help put an end to this. That’s it.”  


“Well,” said Ket, “We intend on trying.”  


She watched them carefully as they mounted their horses.

“All right, then. Now for the plan.”  


She explained to them the path that they’d probably be taking for the rest of their journey. Straight on the north road until they reached a village where her a friend of hers was the mayor. She would trade out their horses for some mounts more suited to the snow, if they mentioned her name, and tell them the way to go on from there.  


They thanked her and started on their way. Ket at least seemed to have cheered up a little bit, and in fact as the walls of the city and stench of rotting corpses was behind him he turned to look at Sekhar with a tiny smirk on his face.  


“I think she liked you.”

Sekhar had to struggle to keep his face impassive. He was fairly sure that the looks she had given him were about something else, and it wasn’t _her_ liking _him_.

“I’m pretty likable, it's only fair.”  


Ket snorted and Sekhar very carefully directed his sight to look down the road instead of at him. His heart had started beating too fast. He desperately wanted to clarify that if if that _was_ what she had implying, it’s not as though he reciprocated. Instead his mouth went dry and he kept his eyes locked on the road ahead. He didn’t know _what_ to say; it’s not as though he needed to defend himself.  


When he stole a glance at Ket he was looking at the cloudy sky with a scowl on his face, either unaware of or ignoring his discomfort. Sekhar’s mouth was dry but he had an idea nagging the back of his brain that he wasn’t sure he’d have a better opportunity to ask about.  


“You’re not jealous, are you?” He was teasing, but he also had to focus very hard on keeping his voice steady.  


Ket rolled his eyes.

“No, I’m not.”

He had that blank expression on his face that meant he was trying not to show how he felt about something. Maybe he really was jealous, but more likely that was just wistful thinking.  


“So you have someone, then? Back home?”

“Nope,” said Ket, very studiously looking forward. “I haven’t really been interested in anyone in a long time. “

 

Sekhar felt his heart drop into his stomach, but kept his expression the same.

“Oh,” he said. “That’s a shame.”  


They rode in silence for the rest of the day, Sekhar mentally kicking himself all the while.

  


* * *

 

The villages grew more and more barren the further north they traveled. More than once they found the places completely abandoned and would simply camp out in the room of the house that had the most firewood, door barricaded. They had a scare with the undead more than once, but cleaning them up turned out to be relatively simple. The largest of the groups seemed to have moved on after the people who had left the villages; two lone travelers didn’t draw much interest.  


When they finally found the town the guard captain had told them about, they found it in a similar situation to the one they had left, with the gates sealed shut and piles of corpses lining the roads. They were let in with a little less suspicion than before, with the guard at the gate joking that if the zombies knew how to ride horses then they were probably dead already.  


Ket had told him he maybe wanted to watch out for that and the man had gone pale.

 

Dropping a few names got them to the house of the mayor, who was an old woman who nearly rivaled Sekhar in height. In fact, a lot of the people here were as tall as he was, which, though it did make him a bit uncomfortable, Sekhar kept his mouth shut about.

 

The mayor wordlessly traded out their horses for animals that were later explained to them to be dire reindeer (and that they were harmless, really, just don’t let them smell your fear) and handed them a map that, upon first examination, just looked to be a grid of dots.  


Ket and Sekhar spent a few minutes looking at it in confusion before she finally explained.

“The dots are lodges for hunters and travelers to stay at. We make sure to stock them with food and firewood before winter sets in, and you’re free to use them as you travel north.”  


She moved her finger up to a large dot on the northern coastline.

“That’s going to be where you want to go. It might be hard, but you should find someone willing to take you on a pilgrimage to the temple of the Raven Queen.”  


Ket looked up at her in concern.

“You’re sure that’s where this is coming from?”  


“It’s pretty much the only guess we have, dear.”

Ket simply nodded and went to roll up the map. The first lodge was less than a day out of town and they would easily be able to make it before nightfall. Before Sekhar could leave after him, the mayor called out for him to hold on a moment.  


He found a box of baked goods shoved into his hands.

“Going to need some energy for the trip, hm?”

Sekhar blinked and looked down at the box.

“I… Suppose so. Thank you very much.”

 

There was a long awkward moment as she stared at him with an intense gaze. Sekhar found himself edging towards the door.

This apparently was not the reaction the woman was looking for, but she chuckled and shook her head.

“Getting to the point, your friend.”

“... What about him?”

“You fancy him, yes?”  


Sekhar tried to fight the heat climbing into his face.Why did this keep happening?

“Is it really so obvious?”  


“Oh, yes,” she said, taking a step back, “especially when you think he’s not looking.”

“Well, he doesn’t seem to have caught on yet. And frankly I don’t see how it's any of your business.”

“Oh, it’s not,” she agreed, “but indulge an old lady to give out some advice anyways. You’re heading to somewhere that is very dangerous, so I suggest you either tell him, or hide it better.”  


Sekhar blinked and opened his mouth, unsure of how to respond. After a few moments she made a ‘shoo’ gesture with her hands, urging him towards the door.

“That’s it. Now you can go, I’m sure he’s waiting for you.”  


Sekhar took that cue to back out of the room and shut the door behind him. He took a moment to compose himself by leaning on the door.

 

Apparently Ket had come back for him after realizing he hadn’t followed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Why’d she keep you?”

Sekhar hoped his face didn’t betray him as he held out the box.

“She just wanted to give us some cookies for the road.”  


“Well, that was nice of her,” said Ket, thankfully ignoring Sekhar’s embarrassment, “but I’m pretty sure there aren’t any roads.”  


* * *

 

There really weren’t roads - certainly not anything that was visible under the snow. Instead, they had to guide themselves using pillars of stone that were erected every couple of miles. Ket would always slow down to read the messages that the people before them had carved onto them.

 

“Reindeer stink,” he read off of one as they passed by, then looked nervously at his own as it plodded through the snow. In their brief time with them, Ket had become convinced that their beady little eyes hid a very intelligent, and quite probably malignant, creature. Sekhar was too afraid of him being right to confirm it.  


They reached the cabin as another dusting of snow was starting to fall.

“I guess this is where we’re stopping for the night.”

“I guess so.”  


Ket gave him a look that was something between suspicious and quizzical. Sekhar had been uneasy about the old woman’s advice all day, and Ket was getting to the point where he was going to ask about it.  


Sekhar slid off of his reindeer to avoid his gaze and opened the door.

The cabin was actually fairly homey, filled with fur covered furniture and hunting trophies. The first thing Sekhar did was walk over to the fireplace and get something started, and that was where he realized there was a problem.  


“Ket?”

Ket kicked the snow off of his boots and stepped inside.

“Yeah?”  
“These places are supposed to be stocked, right?”

“...That’s what she told us, yes.”  


Sekhar held up the three pieces of firewood that had been left in the rack in his arms.

“This is what we have to work with.”

 

Ket raised an eyebrow.

“Seriously?”  


Sekhar sighed and tossed the wood into the fireplace.

“Seriously. This will last us maybe a two hours, at most.”  


Ket grimaced.

“Well, it’s way too cold to go without one, unless this place has some magical heating I’m not aware of.”  


“Not that I can tell,” Sekhar said, “which means we have two options.”  


Ket shut the door with a frown on his face.

“If one of those involves going into the stable and sleeping with those hell-deer, I’d like to hear the other one first.”

 

Sekhar couldn’t help but chuckle, though he found his heart beating quickly over what he was about to say.

“Fine, no deer. Option two is to just stay in here and share body heat ourselves.”

 

Ket sighed, although to Sekhar’s relief he didn’t seem terribly upset at the idea.

 

“Could be worse,” he mused. “At least if it gets too cold you can light yourself on fire.”  


"Well," Sekhar said, "the whole point of doing this is so I don’t have to. At least this time you have a reason to cuddle."  


That caused a reaction in Ket that Sekhar wasn't sure if he had ever seen before. He went bright red, all the way to the tips of his ears.

"I was- I thought-" Ket stammered. Sekhar couldn't believe that he was finding this cute. "If it's a problem, I'm sure we can figure something else out."  


“ _I_ certainly don’t have a problem with it,” Sekhar said, sounding jokingly pompous, “but if _you_ do, I’m sure the reindeer are plenty warm enough for-”

 

“No it’s- It’s fine. If you’re fine with it, then we’re fine. I just didn’t realize you were awake for that.”

Ket had brought a hand up to cover half of his face and was looking at some blank spot on the floor.  


Sekhar chuckled, though he did feel a little bad for how embarrassed he had made Ket.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not as though it does any harm.”  


“Right,” agreed Ket.  


There was a long moment of silence between them as Ket refused to look up from the floor. Finally, Sekhar cleared his throat and gestured to the couch.  


“We can at least enjoy the fire for a little while.”

Ket looked up and nodded.

“And eat,” he added. ”Hopefully some of those supplies are left, at least.”  


Dinner was jerky and dried fruit, and Sekhar actually found his eyelids growing heavy as the sky darkened outside. Ket noticed it too, and after a bit too long spent shifting his gaze between Sekhar and the cinders of what was left of the fire and sighed.

“Might as well get to bed, then. While we’re still warm from the fire.”

Sekhar nodded at him and grabbed the fur blanket he had been sitting on, gesturing at the ground in front of the fireplace.

“Make yourself comfortable.”

 

The first five minutes or so just involved them awkwardly laying next to each other, both of them stiff as boards.

 

The old woman’s advice flashed through Sekhar’s mind. Either tell him or hide it better.

He shifted his weight and put an arm over Ket, pulling him closer. Since when had he ever listened to advice from his elders? Romantic advice, particularly.

 

“Cold?” Ket mumbled, not sounding terribly sleepy.

“Mm-hm.”  


That was not really true at all. Sekhar’s face was burning, but in the dark Ket had no way of knowing how bashful he was.  


That small movement was enough to get Ket to start relaxing, and as he drifted off he started to curl up, pressing his head into Sekhar’s chest. Sekhar did his best to relax his body, even if his mind was racing. Ket had to have picked up on him by _now_   hadn’t he? But he had yet to say anything implying he had caught on, had yet to reject him.  


Ket could still claim ignorance. Sekhar didn’t really have an excuse.  


He sighed quietly, and pressed his face into the top of Ket’s hair with a pang of guilty excitement. He couldn’t quite force himself to confess, either. Not yet.  


One of Ket’s arms had found its way around Sekhar’s side, and in his sleep Ket’s fist tightened to grip the back of Sekhar’s shirt.

  
Sekhar let out a shaky breath and tiredly closed his eyes. At least he was used to Ket’s cuddling. He could pretend that Ket meant it, at least for a while.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank snoot for beta-ing this, as always.
> 
> And in the infamous words of Orem Rivendorn. "Does he need a cookie?"


	4. Chapter 4

Sekhar woke before sunrise, back aching from his odd position on the floor. Ket was still asleep with his hands resting in the same place on Sekhar’s back as they had been the night before. Sekhar managed to extract himself with only a minimum of sleepy protest from Ket.

Sekhar looked down at him. Ket did not often look this relaxed, and Sekhar found himself unable to look away. If he didn’t plan on making the rest of the trip of the end of the Northern continent with him, Sekhar would have no trouble confessing now. If he was rejected, he would be able to deal with it in his own time, but the prospect of having to spend months with someone who he knew did not share his feelings didn’t make him feel particularly eager to reveal anything.

Mostly, he supposed, he just wanted Ket to feel like he could be that relaxed around him when he was awake. Surely he could manage that without a confession.

Ket came to an hour later, seemingly not recognizing where he was in his recently awoken state. Sekhar watched as he mechanically got ready for the day, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and lacing his boots without even acknowledging Sekhar. By the time he seemed ready to leave, Sekhar found he couldn’t help himself but ask, “Sleep well?”

Ket stopped in the middle of pulling on his coat to blink at Sekhar. Suddenly there was color to his cheeks, as though he had just remembered how he had fallen asleep.

“Uh. Yeah. I guess so.”

Sekhar smiled at him and let the subject drop. There was probably no reason for him to tell Ket anything, if he was going to be that obvious.

Neither of them spoke again until they had ridden for several miles when Ket, seemingly out of the blue, asked, “So… do the spirits around here have anything to say about what’s going on?”

Sekhar raised an eyebrow at the sudden question.  
“They’re not particularly happy about it. The ones that have noticed, anyways.”

“You’re saying there are spirits that haven’t noticed what’s going on?”

“If they haven’t been directly affected by a zombie, then probably not. Most spirits don’t tend to care about things that don’t directly threaten them.”

“Mmm. I wish I could do that sometimes.” Ket shook his head at his own wistfulness. “How did you get involved with all this warden stuff, anyways? It must be a story for you to have gone from a noble house in Diamond-throne to this.”

“I hope you mean that as a compliment, H’zard.”  
Kets eyes flicked over his shoulder at if to remind Sekhar of the egg nestled at the bottom of his pack. He certainly didn’t mean it as an insult at any rate.

Sekhar chuckled and shook his head.  
“Well, it’s probably not as exciting as you’re expecting. You’ve picked up on the nature of my family by now, yes?”

“Vampires,” Ket affirmed, deadpan.

“Right. And, as you might imagine, we don't always agree on the way things should be. My mother and I may get along, but things can get tense with the rest of my family. There was a time in my youth when I grew tired of it and left.”

“Chose to leave? Or was kicked out?”  
Sekhar rolled his eyes but couldn’t hide his smirk.

“We came to an agreement. Mind you that I didn’t leave with the plan to become a bright one, but to keep an eye on our friends in House Berrenhall.”

Something about that name sparked a reaction in Ket, whose face suddenly went carefully blank.  
“Friends in  Berrenhall? Is that sarcasm, or…”

“Not at all,” said Sekhar, trying to keep his tone of voice even. “They may not have the best reputation, but I have some close friends among them. If it weren’t for them I would not be where I am today.”

Ket was still very tense, looking off into the distance instead of at Sekhar as they spoke.  
“One of them introduced you to being a warden, right?”

“Lord Aloysius himself introduced me to a druid who cared for some of the land near his manor. I went on my own from there.”

Sekhar saw Ket’s grip tighten on the reins, already feeling quite sure he wasn’t going to like Ket’s reaction.  
“Lord Aloysius is a sorry excuse for a noble,” Ket said tightly. “I’m sorry to say this, since you seem to respect him so much, but-”

“Then don't say it,”  Sekhar replied hotly.

“He-”

“Aloysius is one of the greatest men I know. I practically owe him my life, and I will not abide by you bad-mouthing him to my face. Are we understood?”

The blank expression returned, erasing any emotion Ket had let creep onto his face.  
“If you say so.”  
Sekhar took a few deep breaths to quell his anger. He had let it get out of hand -- he knew that much already.  
He snuck a glance at Ket, who was now staring resolutely at the path and not anywhere near Sekhar.

Sekhar already felt regret creeping up his spine. Perhaps he should have at least let Ket explain himself. He had been lectured on pride time and time again, but he still seemed to slip up far too often.  
He sighed quietly. The best option, he supposed, was to let both of them cool off. He would let Ket explain and he would not try and turn it into a shouting match.

There was supposed to be a village not too far off from here; it would hopefully be a place they could rest and have the opportunity to have that talk. The undead had been pretty sparse here, at least -- a small blessing in the face of the current situation.

* * *

  
Ket didn’t even look at him in the two hours it took to reach the village. His expression remained stony and, though he most certainly saw Sekhar watching him, not a sound left his lips. Sekhar’s worries only worsened as time went on. Had Aloysius truly done something that bad? And had he done wrong by defending him?

True, it had been many years since he had last seen his friend, but he had seemed like a perfectly upstanding man. How did Ket even know him?

This village, at least, seemed to have been spared from the worst of the undead by its isolation. The plan had been to stop there for the night and leave for another of the lodges in the morning, which Sekhar supposed was still the plan despite the lack of communication.

He watched wordlessly as Ket led his reindeer to the small stable that was attached to the only inn in town and went inside without so much as a backward glance. This was bad, wasn’t it?

He stabled his own reindeer and went inside a few minutes later, just in time to hear Ket quietly ask the man behind the counter for two rooms. At that, Sekhar could contain himself no longer.

“Ket,” he said, trying both sound stern and make it clear that he wasn’t angry any longer. He was rewarded with a blank stare. “That’s not necessary. We can share.”

Ket’s expression didn’t change as he held out the room key for Sekhar to take. Sekhar lowered his voice. “Don’t you think you’re being a bit childish?”

He winced immediately as he said it. He didn’t mean it that way, but if Ket knew that he didn’t let on, answering with a clipped, “No.”

Sekhar sheepishly took the key that Ket had offered him and watched him go up the stairs to his own room, waiting until he rounded a corner before heading up himself.

There were even two beds to a room. That stung.

He sat on the bed and started unlacing his boots with a sigh. The morning. He would fix this in the morning.

* * *

 

It wasn’t long after sunrise when Sekhar awoke from his fitful sleep and went down to the lobby to wait for Ket. He was nervous, and that nervousness only worsened at the minutes ticked by.  
Minutes grew into nearly an hour and nervousness gave way to frustration. He had gone too far last night, but now he wasn’t so sure he’d be wrong for calling Ket childish. Arguments aside, they had a problem to solve.

He made his way up to Ket’s room and knocked on the door.  
No response. He knocked again, harder this time, calling out, “Ket!”  
Nothing.  
Grumbling, Sekhar reached down and tried the door handle only to find it unlocked. He hesitated at that. Surely, Ket hadn’t…?

Sekhar opened the door fully to confirm his suspicions and his heart dropped at what he saw. Ket was gone.

Everything was folded neatly and looked as though Ket hadn’t touched the room at all. The only thing out of place was a note sitting in the middle of one of the beds.

_Sekhar,_   
_I’ve gone ahead. You can follow me if you want, but I don't intend to wait up for you._

Sekhar held the note with a hand that he was willing not to shake. The writing on it looked smudged, like it had been written and rewritten. He didn’t know what to think about this, or what to feel. All Sekhar knew was that his throat felt tight and that he needed to follow Ket, if not to make things right then to at least find out what it was that he hadn’t let Ket say. Damn his pride.

Sekhar crumpled the note in his fist and turned to the door. No time to waste, then. Ket had probably left hours ago.

* * *

 

Dire reindeer did not like to run, it seemed, but Sekhar urged his as fast as it would go. Ket hadn’t even tried to cover his tracks, and that plagued Sekhar as he followed them.

Did Ket want him to follow or not? Perhaps he knew it was pointless to cover them since Sekhar knew where he was heading anyway.

Had he really been that unreasonable? Bad enough for Ket to leave without a word?

His deer stumbled to a halt, steam streaming from its nostrils in the cold. Sekhar gave it a moment to rest.  
He had thought that he and Ket had started to become close… Maybe not close in exactly the way he had wanted, but that hardly mattered. Seeing him open up had been its own sort of reward and, thinking back to the argument they had, Sekhar could remember the exact moment when Ket had shut himself off.  
Why couldn’t he have just listened? Even if he didn’t like what he heard, even if it had made him angrier and made things worse, at least he would _know._

He spurred his deer forward again. The sky was starting to cloud over and he didn’t particularly want to be caught in the snow, no matter how this ended.

Sekhar managed to urge the creature into running for a few minutes move before it stopped again, this time with a sudden snort. It took a moment before Sekhar registered why.

There had been a fight here. Limbs and emaciated corpses were half buried in the slush, twisted and burnt. Ket’s tracks were not the only one that left the scene -- he must have been pursued.

Frustrated as he was, Sekhar couldn’t get his mount to go faster than a trot. He had already overworked it and the thing seemed spooked by the threat of undead.

Some of the tracks seemed to wander away from the path Ket had taken, which was some small relief. Assuming Ket hadn’t been injured, he could probably fend off a smaller number of undead on his own perfectly fine.  
But… If he had been hurt…

Sekhar shook that thought out of his head and pushed forward.  He spotted the lodge on the horizon just as the first snowflakes started to fall, but there was something strange about it.  
There was no light behind the window and as he strained his eyes on the horizon past the house he could see that Ket’s trail went on.

Sekhar cursed. Ket did leave earlier than him, after all. It was perfectly sensible that he could have made it to another lodge farther on.  
He looked between the cottage and the trail in front of him uncertainly. The wise thing to do would be to stop for the night and continue his pursuit after the snow had stopped. But the snow would almost certainly cause him to lose the trail, and there was the possibility that Ket was in danger.

True, even more of the undead pursuers seemed to have lost interest and wandered away here, but not all of them. If Ket needed his help…

He turned his deer away from the lodge and continued following the tracks. There wasn’t much time before they would be snowed out, but Sekhar was fairly certain he knew where Ket would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aloysius is real and I did not make him up but I did make up everything about him except the fact hes the warden of the southeast.  
> And snoot, who edited this, is also not made up and is a being of mysterious power.


	5. Chapter 5

As the first house disappeared behind him, the wind started to pick up and the snow began to fall faster. Sekhar pulled his coat closer to his chest and sent out a request to the spirits.

His usual fiery snakes did not want to cooperate so far north. They were as poor fans of the cold as Sekhar was, and as much as he pleaded with them, they seemed unwilling or unable to warm him terribly well.  


The sky was darkening with nighttime, too. Sekhar hadn’t thought it was possible for the air to grow colder, but it did; his breath was being torn away from him with every gust of wind. It grew worse, and before too long he could hardly see -- not for the snow, but because he was hunched over the back of his mount shivering uncontrollably. This didn’t seem natural, but this wasn’t the time to investigate. He just needed to find shelter -- of any kind.  


Quite certain by now that his ears were going to fall off, Sekhar jumped with surprise when his deer stopped and sounded a low note. He looked up and squinted -- in the distance, there was a light. He didn’t know if it was the place he had been headed originally, but the light certainly flickered like a fire, so it didn’t much matter to him.  


A few feet from the door, he slipped off of his deer, stumbled over, and started fumbling with the handle. His freezing hands could hardly get a grip on it.

He tried desperately to open the door with one hand while pounding on it with the other. Had it been locked?

Nearly on the verge of giving up and just breaking down the door, Sekhar heard a _click_ as the handle moved from the other side.  


The door opened to a wash of warmth and the sight of one Ket H’zard warily holding his staff. His eyes widened as he recognized that it was, in fact, Sekhar standing before him.

 

Sekhar immediately tried to stand up straight and say something about how they needed to talk, but all he could get through his chattering teeth were mumbles that Ket certainly couldn’t understand.

 

The flat expression Ket had been giving him earlier gave way to one of concern.  He shook his head and reached out to pull Sekhar through the door.  


“Whatever you’re here for can wait until you’re not freezing to death, alright?”

Sekhar nodded and, despite everything, felt a smile crawl onto his face. He was all too eager to huddle by the fire, and after a minute Ket sat down next to him, offering a warm drink and a blanket.  


Sekhar happily accepted them and let the warmth slowly seep back into his body. He had made it, and he would have a chance to fix things.  


There was a long silence, and tension started building between them again. Before it could become too bad, Sekhar set down his mug.

“Ket,” he said, turning himself to face the other man. Ket acknowledged him with a wary look. “I came to apologize.”

 

The wariness on Ket’s face shifted to surprise and confusion. He really must not have thought Sekhar would come.  


“I should have let you explain yourself. About Aloysius. If you would, I’d like to hear it now.”  


Ket blinked, looking very uncomfortable for a moment before composing his face back into an impenetrable mask.  


“I don’t know what his reputation is like with people in Diamond-Throne, but I know him as a power hungry bully. He’s been trying to grab land and power in the Freelands for years, mostly by funding the warlords that are constantly fighting there. Trying to destabilize things.”  


“Warlords that attacked Coldport.”  


Ket nodded. “More than once. And killing many people I knew.”  


Sekhar felt conflicted. Even back then, he knew he didn’t know all of the plans his friend had going on -- he hadn’t cared for politics at all. The Aloysius he had known didn’t seem like type to do something like that, but if years of experience had taught him anything, it was that politicians were more than happy to do things behind closed doors that betrayed those who only saw them with the doors open.  


An accusation like that really shouldn't surprise him as much as it did.

“You’re... Sure? You’re certain he’s the one responsible?”  


Ket nodded, suddenly appearing very tired.

“Investigated it myself. And there was nothing I could do about it.”  


Sekhar’s shoulders fell. It really had been _that_ bad. He still wasn’t certain he could fully believe the things Ket was saying, but he certainly intended to ask the next time he saw Aloysius.  


Sekhar cleared his throat and reached out to take one of Ket’s hands with his own. He was back to ‘surprised and confused’ as Sekhar locked eyes with him.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not listening to you to begin with, and I’m sorry for the things he’s done to hurt you and the people you love. I hope you can forgive me.”  


Kets cheeks reddened as he opened and closed his mouth. Sekhar had been as sincere as he was able, now all he could hope for was a good reaction.

 

“I… Don’t know what to say.”

Sekhar looked away, back towards the fire that was starting to burn low in the hearth.  


“I understand if you don't want to accept my apology.”  


“No, that’s not-” Ket’s response came instantly. “I mean, it’s just... I never expected anyone to trek through a snowstorm just to apologize to me.”

 

A thin smile spread across Sekhar’s face.

“Should I take that as forgiveness?”  


Ket chuckled. It sounded good.

“Forgiveness. Yeah, I guess that’s the word I’m looking for.”  


They sat there together for another long minute, Sekhar acutely aware that he was still holding Ket’s hand. He turned to look at Ket again.  


“I’d still like to travel together. If that's okay with you, I mean.”

 

Ket smiled at him.

“I think I’d like that.”

  


* * *

 

  


By the time Sekhar woke up the next morning, the storm had blown over and he was feeling much better about the whole situation. He sat up, stretching his arms as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes.

He _was_ warmer, but Ket was nowhere to be found. For a moment, his heart froze. Had Ket changed his mind and decided to go on without him after all?

 

The moment of worry passed as he heard muffled cursing pass from outside. A look out the window confirmed that Ket was already awake and making an effort to saddle their mounts, but as usual they did not want to cooperate with him.

Ket gave Sekhar a pleading look as he pushed the door open to step outside himself, pulling on the reins with one hand and gesturing with the other.

“Can you… I dunno, talk to this thing?”

The reindeer pulled its head away with a snort, obviously unhappy with having been woken up.

It didn’t take much -- just a couple of pats on the neck -- before Sekhar's deer let him mount up. Ket’s snorted and bucked for significantly longer before it let him on. Animals always seemed to be troubled by Ket’s presence. Maybe it was one of his many souls, or maybe he just had a smell about him.

 

As they started moving, Sekhar considered bringing up his theories, just as something to talk about, but he stopped himself. True, they were on good terms again, but Ket still carried himself less openly, and there was still some level of tension between them that wasn’t there before. Ket was obviously still keeping careful control over what emotions he showed, watching Sekhar with a look that was more wary than it had been in the past weeks.

It was some hours later when Sekhar did find the courage to speak, making some inconsequential comment on the clouds that were starting to gather further north (probably more snow, but far enough away that they would most certainly reach their destination before it became a problem).

 

Ket seemed to consider his answer very carefully before nodding and agreeing that they ought to start moving a bit faster, just in case.

Sekhar sighed and didn't miss the look of alarm that briefly passed over Ket’s face.

“I really am going to have to start at square one again with you, aren't I?”

Ket raised an eyebrow, but the corner of his mouth quirked up as well.

“Call it square one and a half. Just give me some time, alright?”

“If spending more time with you is all I have to do, I don’t have a problem with it”

Ket snorted but seemed to take the comment in good spirit.

Sekhar rode the high off of _that_ the rest of the afternoon.

* * *

 

They traveled on for several more days, moving from cabin to cabin with Sekhar gently teasing Ket all the while to get him to open up again. It didn’t take as long as it maybe should have; Sekhar wasn’t certain that Ket trusted him again, but at the very least he was willing to smile.

And so it was evening some time later, when Sekhar was chuckling at something as they crested a ridge, that he saw Ket stop and squint at something. There was an instant where Sekhar feared he had done something to offend him again before he also turned to look. It looked that the place they were staying tonight was a monastery, and one still inhabited at that.

“That’s not going to be a problem, is it? They’ll let you in?” Sekhar asked, trying to keep the earlier banter going.

Ket had to consider it for a long moment.

“It depends on what god it’s dedicated to.”

He paused, shooting Sekhar a quizzical look.

“What about _you?_ No danger of combusting on crossing the threshold?”

Sekhar rolled his eyes, suppressing a chuckle.

“It hasn’t been  a problem thus far. I’m willing to risk it.”

  


They both started the climb downwards, Ket having significantly more trouble with guiding his deer down the path than Sekhar.

“Well,” Ket started, voice half out of breath from having to balance on his mount, “if you do catch on fire, I suppose we could just use the heat as warmth.”

  


There was an unusual tone to his voice, one that almost implied that he meant it suggestively. He almost certainly meant it to be humorous but Sekhar still found that his mouth was suddenly dry and that he couldn’t think of what to say.

Ket, smoothy, realized that no response was coming and kept going.

“I wouldn’t worry about it anyways. I’m sure whatever monks are here are just going to be happy to see someone whose brain isn’t falling out.”

  


* * *

 

  


The temple turned out to be dedicated to Bahamut, kept safe from the undead by a combination of prayer and warfare. The monks there gave them a room for the night without too much question or fuss, silently directing them around the monastery to show them the room they would be sharing and the hot springs they could relax in if they so chose.

With not much else to do for the evening and the the others staying at the temple not very keen on conversation with outsiders, Ket and Sekhar found themselves at the springs housed in the center of the facility.

 

Sekhar very studiously kept his eyes trained on the wall as he removed his shirt in preparation of bathing. Ket was saying something about how he didn’t know if it was considered rude to use soap in a spring like this, and did Sekhar know?

 

“No clue,” he mumbled, hoping his voice sounded normal. He was trying very hard to ignore the idea of Ket disrobing behind him. He had seen Ket in various states of undress before and _yes_ , he was attractive, but something about this situation had him feeling pin pricks in his fingers from the nervous energy. Ket seemed to have at least a vague idea of the feelings Sekhar had developed for him and yet had no issue taking what was essentially a bath with him.

He let a measured breath out as he heard Ket step into the water. This was all a bit ridiculous, wasn’t it? What did he have to be nervous about?

Ignoring the many ideas of things that could go wrong, Sekhar settled into the spring himself. Ket had already made himself comfortable, his arms resting on the edge of the pool and his eyes closed.  


Sekhar took the moment of quiet to scrub dirt off of himself with the sand at the bottom of the pool. On the other side, Ket reached up and ran a hand through his hair, breathing out a contented sigh.

“Why can’t we find places like this more often?”

Sekhar gave him an amused look.

“People who cause trouble don’t tend to do it in nice inns and isolated monasteries.”  


Ket shrugged. “Sure they do, just not the kind of trouble that we end of dealing with.”

Sekhar hummed under his breath.

 

“You were in the guard back in Coldport, right? Did you deal with that sort of crime a lot?”  


“Eh.” Ket rolled his eyes. “I think I was purposefully kept away from that sort of thing because my bosses were afraid that I might _try_.”

“I thought that Coldport seemed like it might have some issues with corruption.”

Ket shot him a deadpan look.

“I feel like I should try and defend my hometown, but yeah. It was pretty bad.” He paused to think for a moment. “I had some co-workers who visited brothels while on the job. Got things for free because they were basically a gang themselves.”

 

Sekhar raised an eyebrow, stifling a smirk.

“Did you ever partake, yourself?”  


Ket snorted. “Nope. I knew those people. Worked with some of them.”

There was a long moment of silence as they both realized what Ket had just said.

“You-”

“Look, _someone_ has to sweep the floors at those places. I took a lot of odd jobs growing up, alright?”

“So not only did your peers go, you worked at one yourself. And you _never_ used their services?”

Ket maintained his stony expression.

“Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t. Why are you so concerned about it? Is there something you want to fess up to yourself?”  


Sekhar waved a hand. “I’m not going to pretend I haven’t had my own share of misadventures, I’m just surprised to hear about yours. Or not, I suppose.”  


Ket finally let the facade drop, revealing an amused looking smile.

“Well maybe I’ll tell you the story sometime. You’ve just got to promise to tell me yours.”  


“Perhaps I will, then. But not tonight.”  


“Well that’s a shame, then.” It was at this point that it occurred to Sekhar that Ket’s tone had most certainly dipped into something flirtatious and the nervousness and excitement from earlier came back tenfold.  


“I’m sure we’ll get to it in time,” he replied, trying his hardest to sound relaxed. Sekhar was fairly certain he could not remember a time when someone had made him so jittery and unable to think straight, and yet he could not pin down just what it was that made Ket so different from others he had courted in the past.  


Ket himself had looked down to examine his own pruning hand.

“Maybe after we’ve dealt with the zombies. We’ll have plenty of time to get home, after all.”  


“You think we won't find more trouble on the way home?”

Ket sighed.  


“I’m sure we will. That’s exactly the kind of luck I have.”  


From there, the conversation turned to other things: luck and games, the cold, the monastery. Sekhar actually managed to get himself to relax again, smiling at the conversation with Ket.

 

When they climbed out of the water to redress themselves, he was hardly worried at all. Things between them would work out some way or another.  


Ket got dressed and made his way back to the room before Sekhar did; when Sekhar opened the door, it was to find Ket already sitting on the edge of the bed that they were apparently going to be sharing, again.

Ket had no complaints this time, he simply gave Sekhar a tired half smile and laid down, making a point of facing away from the center of the mattress. Sekhar did the same, not wanting to make a big deal of it, but yes, wishing that Ket had chosen to turn the other way.

 

And then the night was quiet, filled only with the sound of Ket’s breathing and his own.  


Unsure if Ket had fallen asleep or not, Sekhar decided to do something just a little bit daring. He let his arm fall off his side, resting on the bed so that the back of his hand just barely touched the back of Ket’s.  


Ket’s breathing changed, hitched just a bit, and Sekhar knew at once that Ket was not asleep. Yet his hand did not move, and in fact after a long period where it seemed like neither of them so much as breathed, Ket took his pinky and hooked it around Sekhar’s.

 

Perhaps they would talk about it later, like so many other things, but for tonight, this was enough.

  


 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Snoot started listening to critical hit and loves orem, as anticipated.


	6. Chapter 6

Ket and Sekhar left the monastery with as little fanfare as when they had arrived, quietly thanking the monk who had taken care of their reindeer over the night and going on their way. According to the directions they were given, the next major city, and their final destination was less than a day away. They moved at an easy pace, hooves crunching in the snow and breath forming clouds in the cold air.  


The tension between them had changed and in a way, it was worse. Sekhar was now less concerned with making up for his past mistakes and more focused on not making new ones. More than once he would glance over at Ket only to see that he was doing the same. Sekhar so desperately wanted to say _something_ , to confirm that the last night hadn’t been a dream, but he couldn’t think of a way to broach the subject without feeling like a fool.  


In the end, it was Ket who spoke up first, frowning and breathing into his cupped hands.

“I don’t think I’m really dressed for this,” he admitted. “I think I should have bought some warmer clothes by now.”

Sekhar glanced at him, considering how to respond. He finally settled on a sly smile.

“I suppose you’ll have a chance when we arrive. In the meantime, I could let you borrow something of mine?”  


Ket rolled his eyes but couldn’t stop the smile creeping onto his face.

“I think your clothes might be a little big for me, but thanks for the offer.”  


Sekhar was daringly close to offering himself -- maybe in Ket’s bed -- for warmth, but stopped himself. The usual flirting he practiced in bars just felt so… _Immature._ Even if it was clear now that Ket might be receptive to such a thing, Sekhar found himself wanting to take this more seriously. Ket really was different from anyone he had fallen for before.

 

He settled instead for nodding his head towards the direction they were going, where another bank of clouds had appeared on the horizon.

“Well, the offer stands, because it looks like we’ll be heading into the snow.”

 

Ket sighed, a bit overdramatically.

“Again.”

  


* * *

 

  


The weather wasn’t as bad as it looked from a distance, but it was relentless. A thin powder of snow dusted them for hours as they traveled, to the point where even Sekhar had to hunch and begin shivering. Ket looked increasingly miserable but was too stubborn to admit to it.  


It felt like much longer than an hour before the surprisingly tall buildings of the last city in their journey appeared through the snow. As they approached the borders, Ket quietly mumbled something that sounded like a thanks to some obscene god but then quickly pulled the reins of deer to stop, gesturing at a spot the ground that looked like it had been scorched in a line.

“They've put up some kind of ward here.” He said, voice only just betraying how badly he was shivering. “I was wondering how they kept the undead out without walls.”

 

Sekhar hesitated.

“Just how specific is that ward?”  


Ket looked up, slightly concerned.

“Not very. You think it will stop you?”  


Sekhar sighed.

“No, but I'll probably feel very ill as I go across. You may want to be prepared to catch me as I pass out.”

 

Ket looked wary, but he nodded.

“Will do.”  


They moved across the barrier together, and true to word Sekhar felt a pounding, sharp pain in his head. His vision darkened and the next thing he knew he found his face was pillowed on something warm.  


His eyes fluttered open and he struggled to push himself upright as he got his bearings. He was still on the back of his reindeer but was being supported by another body. As the grip steadied him and pushed him upright, he realized that it belonged to Ket. He blinked until the darkness in his eyes receded and Ket’s face came into focus.  


He looked concerned and his face was quite red, almost certainly from the cold. It took another moment of struggle before Sekhar could pull himself into a sitting position, and Ket’s hands remained on his chest and shoulder, comfortingly heavy.  


“Gods, you weren't kidding, huh?”

Sekhar shook his head, not caring to identify why his mouth felt dry with his head still hurting so badly.

He let Ket support him a moment longer as he took a deep breath, sitting up a bit straighter.

 

Ket withdrew his hands, noticeably brushing Sekhar's hands with his own as his deer took a step to the side.

“Are you alright? Any lasting effects?”  


Sekhar shook his head, rubbing one of his eyes with the heel of his hand.

“I'll be fine,” he said, “though I am going to have to request that we find somewhere quiet to rest.”  


Ket nodded solemnly and started moving forwards, studiously looking at every building for somewhere they might stay, and not backwards at Sekhar, who was watching him go.  


* * *

 

  


The city was easily the most populated one they had come across, filled with refugees and citizens alike, all of whom at least appeared to feel safe moving around the city. Despite the crowded streets, Ket had hardly any trouble at all talking his way into a stable for their mounts and a room to rest in.  


It was a relatively nice suite, complete with fireplace which Ket was already hurrying to light as Sekhar stepped into the room. He was already feeling mostly better but still went to go sit on the couch, stretching his arms out behind his back as he watched Ket set a spark.  


As the fire started its low burn, Ket took a step back and sat down heavily next to Sekhar, reaching up with one hand to rub an ear that was still red from the cold.

“Where’s that old hat Orem gave you?” Sekhar asked with a chuckle. “You need something to cover those ears or else they’ll freeze right off.”

As he spoke, Sekhar reached a hand out to the side of Ket’s face, gently pinching the edge of the offending ear. Ket rolled his eyes. “He took it back when I saw him last. You know how he is.”

There was silence, and after a long moment Sekhar realized what an awkward position he had put them in. He was pretty much holding Ket’s face in his hand, and had been doing it for more than a little too long. To withdraw would make it awkward; to not move would make it more so -- and every moment he spent considering made it worse.

But Ket had always been the faster thinker between the two of them, and instead leaned his head to the side so that Sekhar was supporting it.

“You’re lucky I’m so tired,” said Ket, made all the more believable by his half-closed eyes.

He really did look relaxed. Sekhar tried be the same, but on the inside he felt like his heart was doing some incredible acrobatics. Ket being relaxed like this was rare in and of itself. Ket being relaxed while he was awake and Sekhar was practically holding him something else wholly.

It would have been all too easy to lean in for a kiss right then. Maybe that was what Ket wanted; gods knew it was what Sekhar did. But if he was wrong, if he pushed this too fast, he felt certain it would ruin everything -- instead, he settled for pulling Ket closer, letting go of his cheek only after the side of Ket’s face came to rest on his shoulder. Ket let him do that, too, protesting no more than a with a hum under his breath.

In return, when Ket readjusted his arms, he let one hand fall to rest just on top of Sekhar’s. Sekhar laced their fingers together, praying that Ket couldn’t hear how fast his heart was pounding.

Somehow this was worse than if they had kissed, if only because it made him want to do it all the more.

 

Before too terribly long, Ket’s breathing had changed to the even rhythm of a man asleep, and Sekhar was finally able to begin calming himself.

They didn’t even have an excuse this time. The room had two perfectly functional beds and they had wound up awkwardly wedged on the couch, doing what Sekhar could really only describe as cuddling.  


They still hadn’t even broached discussing whatever relationship was forming between them, but as Sekhar pulled Ket closer and rested his face in his hair, he found that he didn’t mind at all.

  


-  


The next morning, Sekhar woke with a start. Ket had done the same, sitting up suddenly and putting his full weight on Sekhar’s stomach. They both looked around wildly for whatever it was that had woken them, briefly meeting each other’s gaze before a loud series of knocks sounded at the door.

The look they shared that may have been embarrassment immediately became confusion as they looked from each other to the door and back.  


Ket wordlessly slid off of Sekhar, adjusted his clothes to be a bit more presentable, and went to the door. He put a hand on the handle and looked back at Sekhar, who shrugged, realizing he was more concerned with the fact that Ket’s hair looked very good when it was mussed by sleeping.

 

The door opened to reveal a well-dressed, nervous-looking man.

Ket had that look on his face that he got when he was trying not to look surprised.

“Can… We help you?”  


The man held a handkerchief up to his mouth to clear his throat.

“Ah, yes. I am given to believe that you two are foreigners, correct? From the central continent?”  


Ket slowly looked back at Sekhar who shrugged again. The man didn’t seem dangerous, but they both knew better than to assume.

“We are.”  


The  man nodded as though this was exactly how he expected this situation to go.

“Wonderful, wonderful. Well, you see, my lady, the Governess of this particular city, has requested your presence at a party she is throwing this very evening.”

 

Ket blinked, obviously trying to decide which of the many questions he had that he should ask first.

“Why us, exactly?”

The man looked unprepared for that question, blinking his eyes wide and taking a half step back.

“Well, you see… My lady... She, ah…” he looked around as though for listeners, lowering his voice, “She has a strange fascination with foreigners, and would be most obliged if you came to tell her news from your lands.”

 

Ket sighed, trying to keep it from sounding _too_ dramatic.

“We _are_ a little busy. Trying to stop the undead, that sort of thing.”

 

The man nodded with a very serious expression.

“We have heard about you. My lady is willing to provide help in your endeavours. Assuming that you attend, of course.”

 

“What is your lady’s name? And how do you know about us?”  


The man bounced from one leg to the other as he spoke now.

“Lady Asmund. And we received tale of some foreign travelers looking to stop the undead blight in a letter that arrived with the last messenger that came from the south.”  


Sekhar could hear Ket complain under his breath that someone had gotten there faster than them, then sigh.

“I suppose we could at least meet with her.” He paused, looking back at Sekhar again to see him nod his own approval.  


“Oh, wonderful!” said the posh little man with a clap of his hands. “I’ll give you a few moments to prepare yourselves, and you can come step into the carriage waiting outside.”  


He bounced away and Ket shut the door after him, now fully turning around to face Sekhar.

“This seems suspicious to you, too, right?”  


“Very.”  


Ket ran a hand through his hair, more as a nervous tic than any attempt to straighten it.

“He didn’t seem to be lying about anything he said, though. Not as far as I could tell.”  


“And, unfortunately, if this Lady Asmund is really so influential as he was trying to make it seem, she may well be able to prevent us from getting to what we want if we make her unhappy.”

 

“Right.”  


With a final, meaningful glance at each other, Ket opened the door again and they stepped outside.

The streets had been cleaned of snow and true to word a carriage waited outside. It wasn’t overly opulent, like Sekhar had for some reason been expected, but the door was open to reveal a cushioned inside, where the man at the door already sat waiting for them.  


They both climbed through the door, sitting next to each other. The man clapped his hands and the carriage lurched forward.

 

“Now, when we get to my Lady, you must take care to act with the utmost respect. Make sure to bow when you meet and, and if she offers her hand-”

“I’m well acquainted with etiquette,” Sekhar interrupted. “Do recall that she invited us to be _her_ guests.”

Lady Asmund’s servant sniffed and sat up straight at that comment. Too polite to say something snarky, he instead sniffed and said, “Very well, then.”  


Ket silently watched the city out the window, looking pensive. Sekhar wanted to help him relax, or at least focus on something else. He also wanted to hold the hand the Ket had so casually set between them but somehow instinctively knew that this wasn't the time.  


Sekhar self-consciously adjusted his clothes, wishing they he had taken the time to change into something nicer.

It wasn’t terribly long before the carriage pulled up beside a rather impressive looking manor house and they were led through what was probably an impressive garden, before it got covered in snow.

 

The servant led them to the door, instructing them to kick the snow off of their boots in the foyer, and then to wait while he informed his Lady of their arrival. As he left, Ket turned to give Sekhar a sidelong glance.

“I don’t move around in these kind of circles much. Does that all seem good to you?”  


Sekhar held back a sigh.

“Needless pleasantries and being forced to wait to get you uneasy? Yes, this all seems in order.”  


They waited a few minutes longer until the servant poked his head through the door.

“She’s ready to see you. Please, follow me.”  


Sekhar couldn’t help but feel that they were being taken the long way so that they could get a view of all of the fancy candlesticks this woman owned.

Lady Asmund was a tall, dark-skinned woman, who normally would have been quite intimidating were it not for the ridiculous dress she was wearing. It had a bit too much lace to be something that Sekhar could consider ‘casual’.  


She was waiting in a banquet hall, overseeing crowds of other servants as they set tables, but as they entered the room she turned to them and clapped her hands.

“You must be our guests from the central continent!”

She did look genuinely excited to see them there, at least.

 

Her servant bowed, gesturing to her and looking only mildly perturbed by her less-than-noble introduction.

“My Lady Asmund.”

 

She bowed her head at them before the servant turned and gestured to them in turn.

Sekhar took the cue and bowed.

“Sekhar Avata-Sokichi of Obleea, Lord Baron in absentia of The Shores.”

She hid her mouth with a gloved hand.  


“Oh-ho! I hadn’t realized that we had nobility among us!”

 

Then she turned to Ket, who similarly bowed.

“Ket H’zard.”

 

She seemed to consider this for a moment.

“A freelands name? Coldport? Is that right?”  


Ket nodded; he didn’t _look_  uncomfortable, but Sekhar could feel that he was not happy with this situation.

Sekhar was well versed in these kinds of situations and stepped in before things could grow too awkward.

“We’re to understand that you’re hosting a party tonight?”  


Lady Asmund clapped her hands together again, looking not unlike an excited child.

“I am! Some of the most eminent people in the city are gathering on this very night, and, considering your important mission I thought you two should be considered eminent as well.”  


Ket spoke up now. “I was wondering, how exactly do you know about us?”

She chuckled, and Sekhar at once got the distinct impression that this was a woman who was not born into nobility, but had fallen into it.  


“I have friends in places all over the continent. The world, even! Quite a few of them have sent me birds telling me of your quest.”  


Ket paused, messenger birds having obviously not crossed his mind.

“That’s… Fair. Still, I’m not certain how us attending a party will help us solve the undead problem.”  


It was blunt, but she didn’t seem offended in the least.

“The party is to help _me_. And in return for you helping me, I can charter you an Icebreaker ship that can take you directly to the Raven Queen’s temple.”  


Ket nodded, seeming content with the answer.

“Are we certain that’s where the problem is originating from?” Sekhar cut in.  


She shrugged.

“It’s where the first wave of undead originated from. No one who’s gone near it has returned. We can only assume.”  


Sekhar nodded and shared a glance with Ket. This did look to be the easiest way to get where they needed to go.  


The servant who was still standing between them cleared his throat.

“This is all well and good, but the two of you do need to look… _Presentable_ for this event.”  


Lady Asmund nodded her agreement.

“I thought you might not have anything nice to wear. I have clothes you can borrow if need be.”  


“I have my own clothes, but thank you,” Sekhar said.  


There was a beat of quiet as both the Lady and her servant looked to Ket.

“I… May have to borrow something.”

 

* * *

 

Sekhar laced up his coat with practiced movements. It had been a long time since he had been invited to a party, and he felt quite sure that his clothes were out of fashion.

It was fine, he supposed. The Lady of the house wanted them to parade around how foreign they were, he would just say that what he was was all the rage back in Diamond-Throne.  


Leaning down to lace up his boots, he wondered what they were having Ket dress in. Lady Asmund had made it sound as though she had clothes that were at the height of Coldport fashion, but Sekhar suspected that she had probably put something together that she simply _thought_ someone from Coldport would wear.  


It took him a little over an hour to get ready, but as he stepped outside of the room he was given to get a breath of fresh air, he was immediately accosted by another servant, this one telling him that he was expected to tell stories of his continent to the guests, and if he could please tell her some so she could make sure they were appropriate?  


From there, the afternoon went into a blur as he was directed from place to place to make sure everything was in order. It was decided that he and Ket should not greet the guests, but instead act as a surprise. Sekhar was tired of all the decorum long before the evening festivities even began.  


He had finally gotten a moment away from the preparations on one of the long balconies outside of the main hall, not realizing that the room Ket had been sent to prepare himself was nearby.  


He could have sworn some cruel god engineered the moment that happened when Ket came outside specifically to torture him. It was as though everything aligned perfectly -- the light of the setting sun illuminated Ket like he was some sort of divine creature stepping forth to greet him, glinting off of the gold embroidery of the belted coat he was wearing.

 

Sekhar started at him, speechless. Ket self-consciously reached up to touch his face, which was also studded with various small bits of gold.

Finally getting a handle on himself, Sekhar opened his mouth to say something profoundly stupid.

“I didn’t realize you had so many piercings.”  


Ket winced.

“I didn’t until today. They thought it would make me look more like I was from the Freelands.”  


Sekhar swallowed hard, hoping he wasn’t being too obvious. “Well, think they look good on you.”  


Ket looked up at him and smiled, honest-to-god genuinely _smiled_ , and Sekhar felt as though his heart was going to stop.

Then, as if to personally insult him, yet another servant came stepped around him to his side, loudly announcing that the festivities were about to begin, if the two of them would just follow her, please?

 

* * *

 

If the planning had gone by in a blur, then the party itself was practically a hallucination. Sekhar was shuffled from noble to noble, telling them about Diamond-Throne and how troublesome the undead were even that far south, even about the civil war to those that continued to question him.

He tried to keep an eye on Ket, who seemed to be managing himself reasonably well, easily chatting with whatever group he got shuffled around to, but quite often it wasn’t possible.  


Sekhar took special care not to drink too heavily, despite always having a drink in his hand. At some point he even got pulled aside to dance with Lady Asmund -- it was a dance he didn’t know, but as it turned out, she didn’t either. She leaned close to him and told him that their ship would be ready in the morning, and that if they wanted Sekhar and his friend were free to stay in rooms here in her manor.  


It was several more long hours after that before he was about to extract himself from yet another conversation and weasel his way out to the very same balcony he had been on earlier that afternoon.

Perhaps it was luck, perhaps it was fate, but Ket was there as well, leaning over the railing and looking into the darkness where it had started to lightly snow. It was quite dim out here, the only light coming from the waning moon and from inside the party.  


He turned to look at Sekhar as he walked outside with a tired smile.

“I don’t see how you can enjoy doing things like this.”

 

Sekhar chuckled, walking over the join him in watching the snow fall.

“I _did_ leave this sort of thing behind.”  


Ket shook his head, though he was still smiling.

“You still fit in better than I do.”

 

“From what I’ve seen, the people here find you quite charming.”  


Ket’s eyes flicked over to Sekar for just a moment.

“You think so?”  


“Well, _I_ certainly think you’re charming.”  


Sekhar had hardly been thinking, he had just let whatever came to mind come out. He was rewarded by Ket blushing -- this time it was unmistakeable, and all at once Sekhar felt that the moment to finally act had come.  


There was a moment of comfortable silence between them before Ket looked up -- and _gods_ he looked good, with snow just barely dusting his eyelashes like that.  


“Would it be alright if I kissed you?”

Sekhar practically blurted it out. He was tired of overthinking this. It was now or never.  


Ket’s eyes widened for just a moment, trying to hide... What was it? Shock? Embarrassment?

“I thought you’d never ask.”

He was trying to sound confident but there was just a slight tremor in his voice. It was somehow comforting to know that Ket was just as nervous as Sekhar was.

 

Sekhar leaned down and kissed him, one hand finding its way around Ket’s waist as he felt Ket’s own hands creep up into his hair. It felt so perfectly _right_ and Sekhar pulled Ket closer, reveling in how warm he felt compared to the cold winter air.

 

Eventually Sekhar pulled away -- mostly for a chance to breathe -- but was surprised to find that as he drew back, Ket followed him, pressing another brief kiss to his lips before drawing away.

Ket’s voice was hoarse as he spoke.

“Sorry, I just… It’s been a while.”

Sekhar smiled at him and Ket hesitatingly smiled back, letting Sekhar pull him closer into something more of a hug and resting his head on Sekhar’s shoulder with a contented sigh.

 

They just held each other for a long moment in silence, Sekhar feeling that there wasn’t much more that could be said.  


Then, as if on cue, came the voice of Lady Asmund behind them.

“There you both are! Not to interrupt your moment, but you’re both needed inside.”

Sekhar looked down at Ket, who squeezed him tightly before taking a deep breath and a step back, trying not to look too disappointed.

 

“We’ll talk in the morning?” Ket asked in a low voice before stepping farther away.

“The morning,” Sekhar agreed, not at all sure how he could be expected to go back inside after what they had just done.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> powerful


	7. Chapter 7

Sekhar returned to the party but found himself hardly able to pay attention. The festivities had begun to wind down and guests had begun to file out, but he still found it hard to catch the odd glimpse of Ket. It was only when he saw him trying to keep away from some noblewoman who had obviously had one too many drinks that he even realized he was looking at all.  
  


He had to take a step back and take a shaky breath. He wanted nothing more than to drag him back to his room and kiss him again, but Lady Asmund shot him a look from across the room and he had to remember his manners.  
  


They would talk in the morning and have plenty of time together on the boat later, but he was still a bit bitter that, of all of the times that they had to share beds on this journey, tonight was not one of them.

 

It wasn’t too terribly long before the party truly wound to a close and Sekhar was told he was allowed to go rest. Despite everything that had happened that night, he didn’t have it in himself to be restless after such a long day, and the beds in the room Lady Asmund had provided were by far the most comfortable he had slept on the entire journey.

  
  


* * *

 

 

Lady Asmund took it upon herself to lead the two of them to the docks where their ship would be waiting, and much to Sekhar’s chagrin she was already impatiently tapping her foot on the marble floor of her foyer when he arrived. He cast a glance over at Ket, who was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes but who tilted his head and gave Sekhar a questioning look.  
  


Sekhar smiled and shook his head, trying to indicate that now wasn’t the time to talk, but that they would later. Ket blinked and furrowed his eyebrows before turning back to look at Lady Asmund, but Sekhar didn’t miss the color that tinged his cheeks. Hopefully that was a good thing.

 

The morning was misty and predictably cold, though Sekhar found he was starting to mind it less and less. Perhaps he had finally started to feel in tune with the spirits of the area?  
  


Lady Asmund was going on about their trip as they walked along, how it was technically a pilgrimage and that not every crew sent up that way had returned, so the trip would probably be rather sober, the provisions she had packed them, and so on, with only the occasional tangent on how beautiful the temple would be this time of year and how she would love to go if only it wasn’t so dangerous. She was still talking as Sekhar and Ket shuffled up the gangplank of the boat, finishing only as the plank was slid up onto the boat and the ship was preparing to sail out.  
  


“Oh, and the two of you will be sharing a cabin.” Sekhar shot her a look and she gave a mischievous smile. “But I know that won’t be a problem, now will it?”  
  


Then the boat was pushed off and away, and Sekhar had no chance to retort.

He wasn’t surprised about it; it only made sense after what she had caught them doing last night. He glanced at Ket, who seemed impassive about the whole thing, but who shrugged at Sekhar and said, “We might as well check out what she’s left us with.”  
  


The cabin was nicer than Sekhar expected, though the ceiling was annoyingly low, so much so that he had to hunch to navigate the room.  There was only one bed that was draped over with several fur blankets, and even more fur on the floor in the form of a rug.

 

Sekhar looked over to Ket, who caught his eye -- who did not have his usual reaction of staring back but instead quickly looking away to some spot on the wall. He looked _nervous,_ and Sekhar suspected that he was the reason, which made him feel nervous and excited himself.  
  


Ket seemed quite focused on a dark spot in the wood and visibly tensed up as Sekhar reached out to take his hand.  
  


“Sit with me?”

He asked it as gently as he could. Ket didn’t resist as Sekhar pulled him over to sit next to him on the bed, but he didn’t look up, either.  
  


Sekhar didn’t let go of his hand as the quiet stretched out between them. Not wanting to let it become awkward he spoke up.

“Something’s bothering you.”

 

It was more a statement than a question, and it _did_ have the desired effect of having Ket look up at him.

“Not bothering, really. I just-” Ket sighed and Sekhar wondered if this was the first time he had ever seen Ket struggle for words. “We should talk. Right?”  
  


No small amount of dread settled over Sekhar as he said, “I guess we should. I’m all ears.”

He felt positive that Ket was about to tell him that last night had been a mistake, that they should just pretend it hadn’t happened.  
  


“What sort of… _Relationship_ are you looking for, exactly?”  
  


That was not the sort of question Sekhar had expected, but it did nothing to ease his dread.

“What do you mean?”  
  


Ket used ran his free hand through his hair.

“I mean, do you want this to just be a physical thing? Or…”

 

Ket trailed off and it occurred to Sekhar that he had no idea if that was what _Ket_ wanted. He was either nervous because Sekhar wanted too much from him, or he was afraid Sekhar didn’t want him at all.

“What do _you_ want?”  
  


Ket shot him a look that was almost a glare.

“I asked you first.”  
  


Sekhar hesitated a moment. He wanted to answer honestly but he didn’t want to drive Ket away.

“I just want to make you happy. If that just means something physical than I can do that, but if it means more than I would be happy to give that to you, too.”

 

He felt Ket’s hand tighten into a fist under his and could only pray he had given the right answer.

“I… Don’t know what that means. I was kind of hoping to follow your lead.”  
  


Sekhar decided to take the risk, and leaned in to press a kiss onto Ket’s forehead. The way he stopped moving made it clear that even this was a level of intimacy he was not well versed in.

 

“Then don’t worry about it too much. Just go with the flow.”

 

“I guess I could try that.”  
  


Sekhar leaned back with a smile, but could see that Ket hadn’t really relaxed much at all. He turned to look a Sekhar, seemingly making a conscious effort to relax the hand that Sekhar had covered with his own.  
  


“I-”

Ket had started to move forward and cut himself off, still looking uncertain.  
  


“Is there something else?”  
  


Ket looked up at him as though he was trying to gauge something, and Sekhar had to stop himself from mimicking Ket as he bit his lower lip.  
  


And then, quite suddenly, Ket jerked forward, kissing Sekhar with a nervous intensity that was entirely different from what they had shared on the balcony the night before, but was not at all objectionable. Sekhar gave back what he hoped was something that would steady Ket and have him feel confident in what they were. Whatever that was.  
  


It was a long kiss, and when Ket broke it he stayed hoving only inches away from Sekhar’s face. Their eyes locked together. Ket looked almost _desperate_ , though for what Sekhar had no idea. He smiled in a way that he hoped was reassuring and watched as Ket leaned forward to press their foreheads together, closing his eyes as though it made it easier. He stayed like that for a long moment, and Sekhar tentatively reached an arm around to rest on Ket’s waist. Ket let him, softly letting out a breath it seemed he had been holding in for a while, and then saying, very quietly, “Sekhar?”  
  


“Mhhm?”

“Thank you.”

  
  


* * *

 

  
  


The trip was as quiet and grim as Lady Asmund had led them to believe. The sailors on board talked very little to each other, and even less to them. They didn’t seem particularly happy about the trip, and Sekhar couldn’t blame them. They didn’t know who Ket and Sekhar were except that they were foreigners who probably didn’t know what they were getting into.  
  


Still, they could only stand being in the dim cramped spaces of below decks for so long, so Ket and Sekhar found a space on the upper deck that didn’t seem very busy to stand and look out over the calm waters.  
  


“You know,” Sekhar started,  “I can’t say I’ve been to a temple of the Raven Queen’s in… ever? What should we be planning for?”  
  


Ket leaned over the railing of the boat, in a way not dissimilar to the way he had that night at the party, and Sekhar followed suit, letting the edge of their hands brush each other as they  hung over the water.  
  


“I don’t know. All of the ones I’ve been to have been glorified graveyards, and I doubt this one will much different. Trouble is that this is supposed to be the largest one on our plane.”

Sekhar turned to quirk up an eyebrow at him and Ket continued.  
  


“Largest graveyard means most undead. We can’t guarantee that they’ve left.”  
  


“So…”  
  


“So trying to figure out what to do until we see the place is probably pointless.”  
  


Sekhar sighed and looked down at a piece of ice that was drifting by.

“I don’t like getting so close to this place without a plan.”  
  


“Then I guess the plan is to stay on the boat until we figure something out.” Ket straightened up his arms, stretching his back out. “It’s not like they can swim.”

There was a moment of quiet between them, and then, “Hopefully.”  
  


Sekhar snorted, and it was loud enough to attract a glare from one of the sailors.

“Yes. Hopefully.”

 

They spent the rest of the day wandering the ship's various rooms and trying to stay out of the way of the crew. It quite obviously belonged to nobility, based on the amount of useless decorations carved into it, so Sekhar wasn’t very surprised to discover that the galley included a dining room of all things. It looked at though it hadn’t been used in a while, but Sekhar knew he would keep it in mind for later.  
  


After he finished looking around Sekhar decided to go back up on deck, while Ket chose to retreat to the relative warmth of their room. It was difficult to see the sun setting through the haze on the horizon, but the sky fading from orange to red to a dull purple was quite pleasing to watch, and he found himself smiling as stars started to appear in the sky. It wasn’t often he took the time to stop and smell the roses like this.

Then something strange started to happen -- long bands of light started forming in the sky, shifting from green to blue as they snaked from north to south. They were quite beautiful, and mildly alarming, but the sailors on board didn’t seem to give them a second glance so Sekhar supposed that they couldn’t be too dangerous.  
  


He watched them for a moment longer and then turned to go back into the cabin with a smile playing on his lips. He opened the door to find Ket giving a look to his imp that was something between annoyed and resigned. The devil scurried back into Ket’s backpack as Sekhar stepped into the room.  
  


Ket blinked and looked up at him, quirking an eyebrow at his happy expression.

 

“What’s happening?”  
  


“Come outside. There’s something I want you to see.”  
  


Ket allowed himself to be taken to the hand and led outside, where he stopped with a wary eye to the sky.

“What _is_ that?”  
  


One of the few sailors left aboard stopped what he was doing and shot them a look.

“The northern lights. Lots a’ different interpretations, but mostly they just sit up there lookin’ pretty.”

 

Sekhar nodded his thanks and the sailor shook his head as he walked off, mumbling about ignorant foreigners.  
  


Ket still had his eyes locked on the sky, and Sekhar took the opportunity to slip an arm around his waist. Ket didn’t react for a long moment, seemingly weighing what his options were, but as an icy gust of wind swept over them he shivered and leaned into Sekhar.  
  


“Are you worried?”  
  


Ket’s head found a spot to rest on Sekhar’s chest.

“About?”  
  


“Anything, really.”

 

“I would by lying if I said no, but I really try not to worry too much. It never seems to get anything done.”

 

Sekhar smiled, though part of why was because he could see that Ket had let his eyes drift closed as they stood there.  
  


“I suppose that's a commendable way of looking at things.”  
  


They listened to the wind and the gentle movement of the water for a while, and Sekhar decided to move his hand from Ket’s waist to instead tangle his fingers in Ket’s hair. He immediately felt Ket tense and cursed internally.  
  


“Sorry.” He said softly, drawing his hand away, “I-”  
  


“No, I just- It’s fine. Leave it.”

 

Sekhar watched as Ket visibly swallowed.  
  


“I guess I’ve just… Never had a relationship be quite so emotional for me before,” Ket said, “I’ve never been at such a loss for what to do or... What to expect.”  
  


Sekhar gave Ket a small smile, who returned it with one of his own -- though his eyes still betrayed his uncertainty.  
  


After a moment of hesitation, Sekhar began running his fingers through Ket’s hair in a way he hoped was reassuring.

“Well, pretty much everything I do is emotional. I’ll try and walk you through whatever I can.”

 

“Mmhm.”  
  


Ket seemed to enjoy having his hair played with, or was at least trying very hard to relax. Within a few minutes he had already closed his eyes again and leaned more of his weight onto Sekhar.  
  


Then another cold blast of wind blew over them and made even Sekhar shiver.

“You ready to go to bed?”

 

He felt Ket nod against him, and loathe as he was to do it, took a step away. At least it wouldn’t be for very long.  
  


* * *

 

  
  


Strangely enough, sleep actually seemed to come to them more naturally than anything else that day had. Perhaps it was simply because they had more practice, or that they were now too sleepy to overthink things. They both laid down and Ket let Sekhar pull him close, unresisting -- probably welcoming the warmth.

Still, it had its differences from previous nights. Their feet quickly became tangled together and Sekhar finally had the confidence to press a kiss on the top of Ket’s head and was gratified when Ket turned to kiss him back.

  
  


* * *

 

  
  


Their time on the boat was perhaps the most uneventful leg of the entire journey. There wasn’t very much to do besides wait around and sleep, and though Sekhar did spend a lot of time with Ket, he was wary of seeming too overbearing and also took care to make sure he had some time to himself.  
  


They did have dinner in the dining room once, though it wasn’t as romantic as Sekhar had hoped -- in part because it turned out that Ket was very bad at making dinner conversation and liked to focus more on his food.  
  


(Though the night they spent together afterwards more than made up for it).  
  


It took just over a week to reach the temple, though Sekhar could feel it before he saw it --  there was an oppressiveness in the air that quickly gave him a headache. When he went to the upper deck to investigate, it was to see a sky far darker than it should have been for that time of day, but with no stars in sight. It felt almost difficult to breathe and Sekhar found himself having to restrain himself from shaking, though he couldn’t place why.

Ket joined him soon after, and the two of them and a group of sailors watched the horizon as land and temple drifted into view.

 

The building was every bit as beautiful as Lady Asmund had led them to believe, but in the strange twilight that surrounded, it was also quite imposing.

The whole building was surrounded by open graves and turned dirt where presumably corpses had dug themselves free -- but there was a suspicious lack of actual undead presence. Nothing in the scene moved as the boat drifted ever so slowly closer.  
  


Without a word spoken, the anchor was lowered and a smaller boat was sent down to send them to shore. Ket and Sekhar both kept watchful eyes on the temple, but even as their boat scraped the rocks of the beach they couldn’t see any movement. As they approached, Sekhar found that his heart kept beating faster and faster and he broke out into a cold sweat. Something about this place just _felt_ wrong, and it was making him physically ill.

 

Ket reached over and took his hand for a moment, shooting him a look of concern. Sekhar swallowed and nodded, trying to indicate that he was fine. He wasn’t, really, but it wasn’t bad enough to raise concern just yet.

Ket cast him one last glance as he stepped out of the boat, staff held out and waiting for something to appear.  
  


Nothing did, and with a deep breath Sekhar stood and stepped on to the shore to follow him.

The moment feet touched the ground, a wave of dizziness washed over him and his already shaky legs gave out under him. He found himself lying in the gravel, struggling to keep bile from rising up his throat.  
  


Ket was down on his knees fussing over him immediately, but Sekhar could hardly feel it as he was pushed backwards and dragged back into the boat.

It took a few minutes before the worst of it passed, and he looked up at Ket’s concerned face still breathing shakily.  
  


“What… Was that?”  
  


“You tell me. I feel fine.”  
  


The sailor who had helped row them out crossed her arms and Sekhar realized she was noticeably pale.

“I don’t.” She chimed in. “Everyone else has been feeling nasty since this morning.”

 

Ket blinked and looked between her and Sekhar. His expression, at first confused, quickly shifted to something grim.

“I think you should go back. Both of you.”  
  


It was at once obvious what Ket was implying.

“No. No way in hell. Not without you.”  
  


Ket shook his head.

“I know you're not happy about it, but if the reason behind this is what I think it is, then there’s a chance I might be the only one on the plane that can do something about it.”  
  


“And what is that?” Sekhar was trying not to sound too panicked. “What are you going to do?”

 

Ket cast a glance over his shoulder at the temple.

“I _think_ that there’s an opening to the Shadowfell somewhere in there. It let the spirits of the dead come out, and it’s draining the life out of anything alive that stays near it for too long”  
  


Sekhar really did not like the sound of that.

“But not you?”  
  


“Well… Yes me. Just not as fast.”  
  


“I’m not letting you go alone.”

 

“And I’m not going to let you hurt yourself by trying to follow me.”  
  


They locked eyes in that moment and Sekhar already knew that this argument was lost. He wouldn’t be able to follow more than a few steps without collapsing, and he was certain none of the sailors would last long either. If Ket wanted, he could go -- no matter how much Sekhar protested.

 

He reached out to squeeze Ket’s hand and the other man’s expression softened.

“Be careful,” said Sekhar pleadingly. “ _Please_ be careful.”  
  


“I will.”  
  


Sekhkar gently tugged on his hand -- Ket took the suggestion and leaned down so that Sekhar could press a kiss on his lips.

He tried to hold it as long as he was able, to hold Ket with him a moment longer, but another wave of dizziness moved over him and he had to move back to take a choking breath.

 

Ket lingered a moment longer before taking a step back.

“You two should get back to the ship. I’ll put out some kind of signal for you to come pick me up.”

The sailor nodded and immediately went to take the oars and after a last long look at Ket Sekhar joined her.  
  


Ket began walking towards the temple, casting a long glance over his shoulder as they moved apart. He would have work ahead of him, no doubt, but all Sekhar could do was wait.  
  


He felt immediately better as soon as he was out over the water, but the sick feeling from before had been replaced by a crippling worry. There was nothing he could do now; he had just let Ket walk into what was probably a deathtrap alone. He would have no idea if something happened to him and, in fact, was quickly coming to realize that if something _did_ happen, that he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself.

There had to have been something he could have done, something he could still _do_ , but as he paced the deck back and forth nothing came to mind. The only spirits he could get into contact with were the usual ones, the ones that he knew would only do things for him.  
  


An hour passed, and then another, and one of the sailors (the captain? He didn’t know and at the moment didn’t care) tapped him on the shoulder, letting him know that they didn’t want to stay here very long, that the temple wasn’t _that_ big, and that if his _friend_ hadn’t shown up by this time tomorrow they were going to leave without him.  
  


All he could give in response was a dead stare as the other man shrugged and went back to whatever he was doing.

Well that was it then. Ket had a day.  
  


Sekhar eventually found a place to sit and lean his face on the railing of the boat where he could still watch the temple. Another hour went by, and then another, and the dim light changed from warm to cold as the sun set and the moon rose. Sekhar found himself looking at the sky, straining his eyes to see if he  could catch some glimpse of starlight to try and distract himself.  
  


Then, all at once, there were stars, and a gust of wind, and the terrible oppressive feeling began to fade. Sekhar shot to his feet. Ket had done something, and he knew he was too impatient to wait for a signal.  
  


He immediately turned and ordered one of the few sailors left above decks to ready the dinghy, and within minutes was rowing himself back across to the other shore.

Still, nothing moved. There was no sign of life, Ket or otherwise, and Sekhar could not bring himself to relax.  
  


This time he walked across the beach with ease, weaving past the open graves with a long stride and up the stairs to the temple even more quickly.

At the very least, it was easy to see where Ket had gone. This place had been undisturbed so long that every surface was covered with dust, and Ket had left obvious tracks.  
  


Sekhar followed them, finding a long set of stairs downwards onto another floor, and then another set, and another. He kept following Ket’s path and it kept leading him down… and down and _down_ and Sekhar realized as he descended that it was getting cold -- colder than it was even outside.  
  


The trip down the stairs seemed to feel longer than his time waiting on the boat. Sekhar’s anxiety mounted. Surely he would have met Ket halfway by now?

 

And then he saw a faint flickering of light around the bend, and he had reached the bottom of the stairs.

There was only one room -- it was long and empty except for a door at the end, flanked by low burning torches that gave off the light he had seen. And in front of it was a collapsed form that as Sekhar rushed forward he could clearly see was Ket, completely unmoving.  
  


Without sparing even a moment of thought Sekhar bolted forward, falling to his knees and gathering Ket in his arms.

He was the same temperature as the room -- colder, even. Sekhar could see the frost that had started to form on his eyelashes.

 

Willing himself not to panic he pulled Ket closer to listen for a heartbeat.

 

And it was there, slow, and followed by a shallow, stuttering breath, but Ket still lived. There was no time to waste, then.

Sekhar gathered Ket in his arms and started up the stairs, practically running. He was acting on instinct now -- he needed to get himself and Ket back to the boat, and he needed to warm Ket up.  
  


He reached out to the fire spirits that he called on so often. Ket had joked about Sekhar lighting himself on fire to keep them warm, but now, in this situation, it was about to be very nearly real. As cold as it was down here, Sekhar began filling the hallway with steam as he climbed ever upwards.  
  


If he had been thinking of anything but Ket, Sekhar might have been concerned that he would burst his own heart as he carried Ket up what must have been miles worth of stairs. By the time he reached the top he had managed to warm Ket up enough to shiver -- quite uncontrollably and accompanied by concerning sounding coughs -- but it was an improvement over no signs of life at all.  
  


There was hardly a change in pace as he stepped into the boat,  wedging Ket awkwardly between his legs as he started to row towards the ship.

He could see the sailors starting to gather on the deck to watch his approach. He didn’t care.  
  


He climbed the rope they cast over the side to him practically one-armed as he cradled Ket with the other. As soon as he was up straight, he started barking at the sailors who were watching him with wide eyes. All of the lanterns and candles and blankets and anything they had to warm someone up were to be brought to his room.  
  


He didn’t wait for a response as he began making his way that direction himself. He could already feel himself flagging from exhaustion and only just barely managed to drop Ket onto the bed before he collapsed onto it himself.

He willed the spirits to keep going after he had passed out -- he could feel that coming -- to keep them warm as well as they could. They weren’t happy about it (snakes rarely were too pleased about the cold) but they agreed.

 

The only energy he had left in him was to pull the fur blanket over them, and to pull Ket a little bit closer before he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer.

  
  


* * *

 

  
  


When Sekhar awoke, it was to the gentle movement of a boat at sail and to the sensation of cold fingers on his face.

It took him a moment to muster up the energy to open his eyes, and another before the view in front of him focused.  
  


There was Ket, eyebrows furrowed, eyes completely bloodshot and covered in strange shaped bruises.

He was awake. He was _alive_.  
  


Sekhar pulled a hand free from the blankets and found that it shook -- whether it was from exhaustion or emotion, he didn’t know.

He mirrored Ket, bringing his hand to rest on Ket’s jaw much like where Ket was touching him.

“You’re okay.” He didn’t know what else to say. “You’re okay?”

 

Ket gave a tired smile, and his voice was so hoarse that Sekhar had to strain to hear it.

“I’m alive?”  
  


All of the emotions Sekhar had been ignoring in his mad dash through the temple began to well up and he felt tears prick at the corners of his eyes.

“You’re alive. You planning on staying that way?”

 

Ket laughed. It was wheezy and quiet but it was more proof than anything that he had survived.

“I’m trying.”  
  


Unable to hold himself back any longer Sekhar pulled Ket into a tight hug, bowing his head and burying it in Ket’s shoulder. Then he turned and peppered Ket with kisses, up his neck and jaw and finally planting one one his lips, tangling his fingers in Ket’s hair with one hand and pulling his as close as he could with the other.

When he was finally satisfied, Sekhar drew back only the slightest amount, fixing Ket with an intense gaze that he hoped got across the the millions of things he was feeling.

“You’re a lucky bastard, Ket. I hope you know that.”

 

Ket smiled, letting one hand fall lazily down Sekhar’s back.

“I know.”  
  


Sekhar kissed him again.  
  


Later, he would ask what had happened down there at the bottom of the world, what Ket had done to put an end to the thing that had been so viscerally wrong. But now was not the time for that -- they both needed to rest and recover. Sekhar, of course, wanted to celebrate, but that would come later.  
  


For now, this would suffice. They could be warm in each other's arms, _together_.

  
  
  


 

**Author's Note:**

> Snoot, who does not listen to crtical hit (but who loves Orem) beta'd this, and should be thanked with all due gifts and adoration as befits their status.


End file.
